


Catharsis

by Miya_Eulik



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternative Universe - Canon Divergence, Confused Varian, Gen, Post Season 1, Redemption, Sereously the poor kid doesn‘t know what to think anymore, Thoughts about own dead, not really suicidal thoughts but they are there, translated from German but still written by me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:53:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 48,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26950024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miya_Eulik/pseuds/Miya_Eulik
Summary: It had been three months since the fight in Old Corona. Princess Rapunzel left with her friends to follow the black rocks. There was peace in Corona and even if Queen Arianna missed her daughter painfully she still enjoyed the harmony and quietness.Until the day they received this dreadful message, a message from an old enemy of her husband, an alchemist who invented a substance that covers everything with an indestructible crystal, almost like the amber which kept Quirin as their prisoner, like the amber she herself nearly became trapped in.One village has already fallen victim to it and more were bend to follow. They din‘t have too many options, Arianna knew that, after all, Corona only has one alchemist, a boy who is currently sitting in the dungeons beneath her feet in a small, cold cell and nobody knew whether he would agree to help them in their need or even what he would demand in return should they ask. But they had no other choice and who knew it, maybe this is exactly the right opportunity to bring Varian back to light.All Arianna can do is hope.
Relationships: Queen Arianna of Corona & Varian (Disney), Queen Arianna of Corona/King Frederic of Corona (Disney), Ruddiger & Varian (Disney)
Comments: 65
Kudos: 190





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello to everyone who managed to find this peace. As I said before in my other works, I am not a native english speaker. I am originally from the Ukraine and live in Germany right now so I apparently write in German the most time. But as I want to improve my English and to reach more people with my stories I decided to try translating some of my works. In my previous works on this site I got told that my English is not so bad, but I still wanted to warn you that you are dealing with a nonnative here.
> 
> This peace is finished, it has a total of 14 chapters, but I still have to translate it, so I will probably post it once a week. Maybe more often if I manage to translate more.
> 
> Disclaimer: apparently I don‘t own Tangled, if I would then `Varian and the seven Kingdoms´ would definitely be a thing.

After hearing about the return of her husband, King Frederic of Corona, Queen Arianna went to his study without wasting any time. It was late afternoon when the monarch returned to his castle. The moon casted her milky silver glow on the puffy, white clouds which were hiding her from the world like big heavy curtains.

The King's study was cast in an oppressive twilight, lit only by the shine of a lone candle. The flame flickered in an invisible breeze and cast strange shadows on Frederic’s face, aging him by years. Or was it not the shadows doing? Arianna knew her husband well and could always tell when his mood was clouded and dark.

His mouth behind the well-trimmed beard was one single hard line, the teeth pressed tightly together, the brows furrowed, the fists lying on the wooden surface of the desk were tensed and trembled slightly in anger or fear or impatience. Arianna knew woman who would fear to talk to their husbands when they were in such a mood. But she was not one of these woman and Frederic was not one of these man.

The Queen gently knocked on the doorframe, the noise of it sounding strangely muffled, like an intruder, an unwanted thing cutting the silence with a rusty knife. The King’s eyes flew up to her from the crumbled piece of paper lying between his fists like it was the reason for all his troubles.

Arianna didn’t knew the destination of Frederic’s journey he came home from in such a dark mood. A bad dispatch reached them that morning, a message from a tiny village on the outskirts of Corona, that was in danger and needed the immediate presence of the King himself.

The messenger reached them with the rise of the sun, a lanky youth with dishevelled hair and light fluff over his lip he was probably incredibly proud of. The Queen had seen him only from distance and hadn’t been there, when he reported to the King. But whatever the boy had to say, it was troubling Frederic enough to force him to leave immediately with a small group of man.

“Sweetheart” she spoke worriedly as she came in not waiting for an answer. She never needed the permission of her husband to enter his study “what happened?” Frederic looked her in the eyes, only for one brief moment, but she still could read the worry in his own. Then he sighed, deep and tiredly, and buried his face in his open palm. Arianna let him. She sat down in the chair on the other side of the desk with her usual grace she so unsuccessfully was trying to teach her daughter to and waited patiently.

After a few minutes, Frederic picked the crumbled paper up and wordlessly handed it to his wife. The Queen reached for it and turned it over gently, smoothing every wrinkle her husband must have inflicted on it. Only when she was satisfied with the result she finally bent over it. It was a letter, the handwritten syllables, pointed and angry and barely legible, sent Arianna a cold shiver down her spine. She knew that handwriting, knew the man whose hand formed the words, knew how far he would go for this letter was not the first.

It would be appropriate and according to the convention of our society to address you as ‘your highly revered majesty King Frederic’, but even after all those years I am not able to find even the tiniest spark in me that want to treat you with any respect. You are a terrible person, Fred, and though you probably have forgotten all about me, I didn’t. I have not – no, I could not forget your deceitful treachery! But today I will, generous as I am, give you the opportunity to lighten your conscience - if you still have one - and to set things right. It will be hard for it is not in your nature to hold your end of a deal, but I am sure, my newest creation will be able to make your decision so much easier. If you are reading this lines, than the boy did as I told him to and brought you my letter, probably you have even seen for yourself what I did with this nice little village.

The crystal is of my own creation, I called it Vindictanium and I assure you, there will be no alchemist in your lousy kingdom who will be able to save you from it. This village was only the beginning. There will be more and even your beloved castle would not be spared. But I am not cruel, I will give you time but even my patience has its limits. Every week another place will be swallowed by my crystal. Of course you can try to look for me, but you will be only wasting precious time your people don't have. However I am not a monster, I am not holding a grudge against the good people of Corona, only against you, so I will give you a chance to save your people.

I am not asking much, just what is rightfully mine: the flower. I did what you asked me to, I brewed the flower into a potion for your dying wife. She lives, your daughter lives, even returned to you as I heard. You promised me the rest of the flower for my services. Now I ask for what is rightfully mine. Bring the flower to the village and I will give you a compound that can neutralize the Vindictanium. If you refuse, I will personally come in your castle and pour it over the head of your beloved queen and she will become nothing more than a pretty statue.

Agamon

The letter sounded cold, frosty like the deepest winter but Arianna could feel the hot rage behind every syllable, every letter, gripping her trout with invisible fingers. She could only vaguely remember the alchemist, who had saved her life and that of Rapunzel so many years ago.

She had been feverish in that time, her head feeling like it was dipped in clouds. Agamon was nothing but a shadow, dark and dull and only weeks after Rapunzel’s birth she finally learned the part he played in saving the both of them. It had taken years – until the first time he tried to take revenge on them – that she learned about the deal, Frederic promising him the rest of the flower without holding his end of the bargain. After her recovery her husband had thrown him out of the castle, he gave the man gold, but not what they agreed upon. 

“Agamon” Frederic growled behind his beard, angry and fearful at the same time “the whole village is covered with this thing. The people are stuck in their houses, Arianna, and we are not able to get them out. But the flower…”

“We don’t have the flower anymore” Arianna breathed softly for it was true, the flower didn’t exist anymore, Varian destroyed it in his fruitless attempt to free his father. Arianna didn’t like to look back at the time of her captivity, the cold stone floor she was forced to sit on and watch a seemingly completely confused child build metal-monstrosities, the function of which the queen couldn’t even hope to understand.

Sometimes she dreamed of that day, of that horror and that battle, how she nearly lost her daughter again. On some days she even now could feel the ghost of the metal-fingers grip her waist painfully or shuddered at the sight of amber, remembering the cold fear as the strange substance was creeping to her inevitably and she nearly shared Quirin’s tragic fate. Sometimes she dreamt about the boy as well, his wild eyes filled to the brim with anger and despair and she was ashamed of being afraid of a fourteen-year-old child.

“That damned brat” Frederic banged his fist on the table.

“Would you have given him the flower, would it still exist?” Arianna asked sceptically. The King just huffed angrily, but it was enough of an answer. Of course he would never respond to this demand, this vile blackmail, even if he could. Frederic have always been a very stubborn man and the flower was too valuable and too dangerous to give it away carelessly.

“What are we about to do now?” Arianna asked with fine notes of concern in her voice, for they had to do something if they wanted to save their kingdom and their subjects, not to mention their own lives.

“I sent some man to look for Agamon, but…” he responded and brock off, not bringing the sentence to an end.

“But you don’t think they will be successful” ended Arianna for him.

“Agamon is resourceful and he is smart” Frederic shook his head “we will not have enough time to find him”

“Which options do we have?” Arianna asked further.

“We don’t have enough time to look for an alchemist, who can neutralize this creation of his, either” the king responded, almost defeated, almost beaten even without an actual fight. He was right. Corona was a simple kingdom, so small it was possible to build a wall around it’s corners. They didn’t have an university they could ask for the help of a professional and they didn’t have the time to ask a neighbouring kingdom.

Like she knew her husband, he wouldn’t want their neighbours to know of the mess they currently found themselves in so they wouldn’t look week or vulnerable. Arianna could understand it too well, diplomacy was a peaceful but very brutal game and sure, they had quite good relationships with their neighbours, even with Equis – if the monarchs could afford to pull pranks on each other like little boys on a playground, the relationship was quite a good one – but none of them would miss the opportunity to take advantage of a competitor's plight or ask for something that was far too valuable. It could even be the hand of the Crown Princess in marriage, even though it would go entirely against her wishes and Arianna could never do this to her daughter, not even to save her kingdom.

No, they could not turn to their neighbours.

If not the help of another kingdom, than what? She knew the blacksmith, Xavier, studied alchemy but it was nothing more than thought experimentations. The man loved knowledge, but he was not particularly interested in putting his knowledge to use. Theories alone could not save them from this mess. Arianna herself read a little bit about alchemy after the Battle of Old Corona for she never wanted to find herself in a situation again, where she didn’t knew, what happened around her, or worst – with her or the people she loved.

No, she never wanted to feel so helpless, that her daughter had to come rescue her, ever again. She read Varian's notes even though she couldn’t understand even the half of it. But her knowledge was devastatingly small and would never be enough to oppose Agamon. Than what? What? That feeling of powerlessness was simply devastating. She loved her kingdom and the people living in it. She was responsible for them, but could do nothing to save them.

The only alchemist who could even stand a chance to neutralize Agamon’s creation was sitting in the dungeons underneath her feet right now…Frederic will not like her idea, Arianna thought bitterly and took a deep breath before she started to speak:

“There is an alchemist in Corona, who can stop Agamon” her voice sounded very small and uncertain. Soft, nearly untraceable notes of fear crept in it, barely audible and against her will. Frederic picked up after her words, hesitant hope in his eyes.

“What?” he asked in a husky voice “who?”

“Varian” Arianna replied and hurried to continue before the King could cut her off for he would certainly do just that with the atrocity she just voiced “I know, what you want to say, I know more than anybody else how dangerous he is. But, do we have another choice?”

“The boy tried to kill you and our daughter, not to mention our troops and all willing to fight him” Frederic shook his head in disbelief “how can you even suggest such a thing?”

“I read his notes, Fred” she went on, a strange certainty in her mind that she was right, now, that she had voiced it “that boy is brilliant, if we want to save Corona, than he is our best hope” Frederic opened his mouth, certainly to contradict her again, but she raised her hand and he remained silent “and would this not be the perfect opportunity to help him? That is exactly what we promised Rapunzel before she took of on her journey, but since then…” she broke off in shame for this was exactly what happened, none of them had done anything to help the poor boy.

Arianna did try, nearly every morning after she left her bed she said to herself, that today would be the day she manages to pull herself together and go down to the dungeons to check on Varian. She never managed to “he was not himself when he did all of these things” she continued softly “he’s been down there for three months, maybe he's come back to his senses. Is this not the perfect opportunity to give him the chance to set things right?”

“You pity him?” Frederic asked baffled.

“Of course I pity him! He is fourteen, Fred, he lost his father in a horrible way. How can I not pity him?” Arianna replied almost heatedly “I will watch over his work. I read a lot about alchemy in the past few months, he wouldn’t even have a chance to do something. Do we have a choice? We can at least try to talk to him” she added quietly and fell silent. Her fixed gaze filled to the brim with determination laid on her husband and hope fluttered in her heart like a captive bird wanting to get free. Hope for Frederic to make the right decision.

The king watched her thoughtfully for a few minutes, seemingly considering and weighing up, whether this all was worth the risk. Then he run his hand over his face tiredly.

“All right” he nodded eventually and Arianna exhaled the air, that got stuck in her lungs, in relief “but he will be under surveillance the whole time, you will not spend even one moment alone with him, there will always be at last two guards present and I swear to you, should anything go wrong, I will not spare him anymore” with this words he stood up and left the room. He would now probably order someone to bring the boy here. Arianna stayed seated for she wanted to be present for this conversation. It was time for her to finally face her fears, she decided bitterly and clenched her fists in her lap.

She didn’t have to wait long, only mere minutes later Frederic returned to her. The air was filled with silence and before she knew it, the captain of the guards opened the door to the study. Arianna got up from her chair and stood next to her husband behind the desk. They will do it together, the Queen decided, like one united front. Next to the broad-shouldered captain Varian looked even smaller, then he actually was, thinner, slimmer, younger. The broad hand of the man laid firmly on his slim shoulder, buried it even under itself. The thin wrists of the boy were complettly covered by the heavy shackles, the chain being far too short for him to lover them comfortably.

He looked pale like a ghost, disturbed, the hair was longer then during the battle and hung tousled in his face. The eyes were rimmed with deep shadows and were not quite as furious as she remembered them to be. He looked more tired than angry. There was no wonder to that, after all, three months had passed since this terrible day. Three long months he spent in a small, cold cell alone with his thought, which were bent to be not joyful at all. Arianna couldn’t even imagine what it was like to have nothing to distract oneself from all the horror he had to endure. It must have been terrible.

Varians eyes hardened as they scurried over Frederic, returning one little spark of that anger, hot and cold at the same time. Then he looked to Arianna and she forced – despite all the fear in her hearth that showed its ugly head as she saw her former kidnapper – a smile to her lips. The smile was a small little thing, uncertain and fearful, but she hopped she was able to make it even slightly reassuring. The boy startled slightly, when he saw her, and quickly looked back to the King.

“Thank you, Captain” Frederic nodded “please wait outside” the man gave Varian a sceptical look, but seemingly decided, that he posed no danger to his royals, gave a brief bow and left the room “sit down, boy” spoke the King with a frosty voice and pointed to the empty chair in front of him. Varian narrowed his eyes, seemingly looking for a hook in all of this and made no move to follow the order, for it clearly was one “don’t test my patience, boy” the King growled and Arianna laid a calming hand in his shoulder.

Varian shallowed hard, but seemingly decided that this was something not worth to fight the King over. He hesitantly walked to the chair, the chain rattling with his every step, and sat down on the edge of the seat, ready to jump up anytime. The queen tried another smile, this time more convincing, after all, it would be more than stupid to fear him now, but he stubbornly tried not to look her in the face.

“We have a problem for which your…expertise could be of use” Frederic spoke outright with a firm voice “an alchemist, an enemy of Corona, released a substance in a village on the mainland and threatens that more will follow” the King reached into his jacket and took out a crystal with a leaf encased inside of it.

Arianna peeked curiously over his shoulder when he carelessly threw it on the table. It was bright and blueish with a clear surface just like a gem. The leaf inside of it must have been from an oak, the crystal highlighted every fibre of the plant and it looked almost beautiful if it hadn’t been so dangerous. The glow of the candle reflected on the clear surface and made the leaf shine fiery. Varian followed it with his eyes as it slid towards him finally coming to a halt just a few inches away from the edge of the table, but made no move to take it.

“I don’t know why you need my help with this” he said eventually softly and cold, maybe even a little bit monotone. His voice sounded hoarse like he hadn’t used it a long time. That was probably the case. Who should he even talk to down there?

“The whole village is covered in this crystal” Arianna explained willingly when Frederic furrowed his brows angrily. If her husband wasn’t willing to talk to the boy reasonable, than she will “and there would be more. This crystal was created by alchemy and you are the best alchemist of Corona” a little bit of praise would not hurt, Arianna thought after this words, even though she didn’t believe that it would make any difference.

“There were people in that village” Frederic admitted grimly “some of them were on the streets and are now nothing more than statues made of crystal, we don’t even know if they are alive. Fortunately Agamon let that thing out in the middle of the night and there were not many people who met this fate. The rest of them were in their houses. The crystal covered everything, even the chimneys. We can’t say if these people are alive but we were able to see moving shadows in the windows. If we don’t do something, he'll get to the castle sooner or later” after this words Varian suddenly started to laugh.

The laugh crunched like broken glass and bore no spark of joy in it. It was cold and scornful, maybe even a little bit crazy and it should not come out of the mouth of someone this young. It chased an icy shiver down Arianna’s back, but luckily he didn’t laugh for long, after a few seconds he slumped in to himself, limp, like a strange doll that got its strings cut.

“So your home is threatened by a strange substance and of all people you are coming to me?” the boy snorted disdainfully “sounds very familiar, don’t you think? Is this a bad jock?” the anger in his voice was hot and let Arianna suddenly realise the irony of this situation.

After the Battle of Old Corona Rapunzel told her everything. She had sounded so desperate and guilty while doing so, like she would rather be everywhere but with her loving mother, who she had to admit to that she had a part in all this mess as well but still felt obligated to tell all of this for no one would do it in her state. Arianna knew why she was doing it. Her daughter wanted her to understand, why Varian did all of this, that he was not a monster who was hurting people for no reason. That he was a human being with plausible reasons and motives even if his methods were not. And Arianna understood, really, and she wanted to help if not for the frosty fear deep down in her very hearth, the memory of this terrible day.

But she would do it better in the future, she decided, she would pull herself together and help this child to the best of her abilities and she would start today.

“You are right” she said gently “it is quite ironically to ask for your help of all people after everything that happened to you and Old Corona. But will you not be able to understand better then anybody else what these people are going through right now? Their fear and their despair? They are not at fault for the terrible things that happened to you, they are just like you and just like you they will lose everything if you will not help them” Varian cringed after these words barely noticeably, as if from an invisible whip. His eyes flew up to her and got caught somewhere between her cheek and the wall behind her, as if he couldn't look her in the face. Then he bit his lip and muttered out almost tormented:

“I don’t care for the people of Corona” it was a lie, the queen was able to see it right away. It was a very weak lie, a pitiful attempt to look more evil than he actually was. He probably believed it himself, clinging desperately to his self-made malice so as not to admit to himself that he wasn't the monster the people saw him as.

“I don’t believe you” Arianna shook her head “Rapunzel told me a lot about you, you know? Before all of these you always tired to use your inventions for the benefit of others”

“And see where that took me” he responded coldly “it doesn't matter what the princess says”

“Does it not?” Arianna asked further “I understand why you are angry with us, but these people didn’t do anything to you, they are victims, just like your father” after these words she fell silent, gave him time to think and to come to the unavoidable conclusion that it was the right thing to do.

Frederic stayed quit as well. Her husband may at times act like a stubborn oaf but even he was able to understand that her approach will be more successful than the threats, probably circling on his tongue like confused bees right now. The boy will never help them should they be voiced.

“All right” Varian spoke softly after some time of silence eventually “but I am not doing it for you, I am doing it only for these people and I have conditions”

“Don’t test my patience, boy” Frederic growled threatening but fell silent as Arianna tightened her grip on his shoulder.

“Of course” she nodded willingly and encouragingly, hoping for her husband to stay silent.

“Ruddiger will come with me” Varian spoke with a firm voice not letting room for discussion. Well, this condition was not hard to meet.

“Who is Ruddiger?” Frederic asked sceptically.

“His racoon, Sweathearth” Arianna explained. So the loyal creature was still with him, that was good.

“Fine” the King rolled his eyes.

“And when all of these is over you will let me continue with my research to save my father” the boy continued, suddenly even paler in the dim light of the candle.

“That is out of the question!” Frederic jumped up angrily “do you really think that we will let you continue with your…‘research’ after everything you have done!?”

“Then we don’t have a deal” the boy shook his head and the queen could see the disappointment and maybe even a tiny slice of regret in his eyes.

“Varian, these people really need your help” Arianna tried again through knowing it would have no use. Would the decision haven been Arianna’s to make, she would have agreed. After all, he didn't ask them to let him take his revenge on all of them, not even to let him go. All he wanted was to give him a chace to save someone. But, unfortunately, the decision was not hers to make.

“My father is innocent, he didn’t do anything wrong to deserve all of this” Varian clenched his chained fists in his lap “he is not to blame for what I did! I am not asking you to let me go. If you will feel better about it, than let a guard stand behind me with a loaded crossbow at any time, I don’t care. He should not pay for something I have done!” his shoulders trembled at every word and Arianna wondered if he was about to cry. His eyes were glittering suspiciously in the shine of the candle but no tear fell as he looked at Frederic with hard eyes “he called you friend” he ended with a weak voice eventually, softly and accusing. The accusation laid heavy in the air and the queen could almost feel physically how hard it hit Frederic for it was the truth.

Quirin has been his friend for years. This friendship was even now quite strong and, even though Varian was probably not aware of it, this friendship saved him from the gallows. After the battle of Old Corona Arianna had expected to fight for the boy’s life, but Frederic hadn’t even considered such a sentence. Since Rapunzel’s fortunate return Corona had not have one single execution for the last one nearly costed them their daughter.

If they had hung Eugene on that day, he would never have gotten to the tower and certainly woul never have saved Rapunzel from Gothel. With such a backstory one was bound to consider putting his signature under such an order. But treason, especially the kind the boy had committed, was a different matter entirely and some courtiers were not particularly quietly outraged by the fact, that Varian was still alive.

“Don’t you want something else?” Frederic asked helplessly “a better cell? Better food maybe?” the boy said nothing and got up without saying a word “you will die as well if Agamon will not be stopped!”

“Do you really think my life matters to me now?” Varian responded bitterly.

“I will never allow this” Frederic brought out through clenched teeth.

“Than Corona is doomed. You know were you can find me when you change your mind” with these words Varian opened the door and stepped out to the captain. The heavy wooden door slammed shut behind him with a soft bang. It will be a lot of work to convince her husband to agree to this, the queen thought with a deep sigh.


	2. Chapter 2

Varian was in a trance-like state when the captain brought him back to the dungeons wordlessly. His feet moved on their own account, the chains on his wrists rattled uncomfortably with every step through the silence, as if painfully trying to remind him who he was now: a prisoner, a criminal, a unscrupulously evil person. His thought circled in his head, melted into an impenetrable mass only to part again. 

He should have agreed when he had the chance to do so. He should have jumped to the opportunity to hold tubes in his hands again, to do alchemy, to solve a difficult problem. To help people. Even thought he was still angry, the hate still burning in his hearth like a wild campfire, something had changed in the past three months. He hated the king for his ignorance, that had taken so much from him and he hated Rapunzel for her lies, but the rest of Corona…he had long fought to resist these thoughts, had desperately tried to tell himself, that he was right, that justice was the ting leading his hands. But he couldn’t resist the logic unforgiving creeping in his mind. 

It was logical to blame the royal family for their actions had his misery as a result, but not the people of Corona. So, he should have been happy to get this opportunity to use his knowledge to help others. This always has been his ultimate goal, wasn't it? To use his inventions to make the lives of others better? At least this have been the case in the past before that fateful blizzard when he realized how terribly cruel the world around him really was. 

On that day something broke inside of him. The child in him died a cruel death in this freezing cold he was relentlessly thrown out by the people he had trusted unconditionally, leaving behind just this bitter, angry thing. This anger had kept him up, kept him going all these weeks he kept sitting in his half-destroyed house trying to save his father. Now this anger was nothing but a shadow, nondescriptly dark in the deepest corner of his mind where it was whispering things in his ears that were so illogical that he could not bring himself to listen to them anymore. 

It would probably be easier to just give in in this anger again, to let it consume his mind so he would not be forced to think anymore. But he didn’t do so. Instead he was weak and tired, the hours down there were excruciatingly slow and on some days the boy wished they would just hang him. That would be much easier than to see his father's rigid form that haunted him in his dreams.

After his defeat Varian expected them to hang him. He had stolen from the king, let a monster attack the capital, kidnapped the queen, threatened the princess and fought against the king’s troops. He tried to kill them all, even Cassandra. In the first weeks of his imprisonment he had been like a cat on hot bricks, waiting for them to come for him. He thought about the physics of the whole process. How his own weight would pull the rope down around his neck, cutting off his air supply and breaking his neck. But the weeks passed, and nobody came and for a few moments he actually felt relieve, but then he realized what it meant. 

He will stay down in this stuffy hole forever, no light, no books, no experiments, no way to help his father, just his raging thoughts and the rope suddenly sounded not so terrible anymore. Now he had the opportunity to get at least some of all these back even if it would not be forever. All he had to do was agree and he would get out of the dungeons for a few days, leave this place that has now become his home. But he refused, had rejected all of this in his anger creeping up in him at the sight of the king. 

He had set a condition the man would never agree to meet, no matter how desperately they needed his help. He should have agreed. He could have stolen some chemicals, they had to let him near some of them if they wanted him to help them. He could have stolen enough to break out of the dungeons later and save his father or at least try to do so. But now, now he had nothing, he was at the starting point again. Now he would never escape.

At the end he really was nothing but a stupid child who got confused by the presence of these people to the point where he couldn’t think clearly anymore. The anger burning up in him at the sight of the king stifled again when his eyes fell on the queen. The woman he kidnapped and tried to kill, the person who was entirely innocent and he couldn’t even look her in the face. She did nothing wrong, she wasn’t ignoring the problems away like the king did for she herself had no idea of their existence and she never broke a promise to him like Rapunzel did. She didn’t turn against him for they never even met before, she wasn’t a friend, she was a stranger who nearly became a collateral damage just like his father all because he was too angry to think straight. 

Now he could think straight after all these months he spend alone with his thought. Now he could see all the pointlessness of his actions. He should never have tried to let others solve his problems; he will save his father on his own, how it was meant to be. But it was too late now, he can do nothing from down there and now he turned down the only opportunity to leave this horrible place.

With his racing thoughts Varian hadn't noticed how they reached his cell again. The captain opened the door for him and wordlessly took the chains off his wrists. The skin underneath was red and stinged slightly, as it came into contact with air. Then the man gave him a little push and the boy stumbled inside before he heard the bars close behind him. 

Seeing his human return Ruddiger raised his head from the barren cot serving the prisoner as a bed. Just like a cat, he wriggled around his legs in a silent greeting and finally wrapped the tip of his bushy tail around his right ankle. 

It was a miracle the racoon still kept coming back after all this time. The window at the top of his cell wasn't big enough for Varian to fit through, but it was big enough for his pet, who skilfully leapt up the wall and sometimes vanished out into the open, but he always came back. Raccoons were nocturnal, but Ruddiger only disappeared during the day, he kept coming back at night, as if he knew that Varian would probably not be able to fall asleep without him. Had it not been for Ruddiger, the boy would probably have gone mad down here like the people thought him to be.

Varian carefully picked the raccoon up and, as usual, sat him on his shoulder as he walked towards his bed, if the hard, wooden bench and thin blanket could be described as such.

“Hey, kid” Andrew called for him from the neighbouring cell “what have they done to you?” the man was trying to build some sort of a sense of camaraderie with him for the past months. The boy knew, what he was up to, he wanted to use him to break out of the dungeon and to take over Corona. 

Andrew was not particularly secretive about his goals, some weeks ago he told the boy that he wanted to take over the kingdom and then kill all the people with one of Varians chemicals to bring Saporia back to life. The young alchemist knew, that with time he would give in to Andrew simply to get out of this place, to get another chance to save his father. Maybe he will be able to come up with another plan, a better one, one where they will not have to kill everyone but to…he didn’t know what yet, but certainly not that. Thought for the moment he managed to ignore him. 

Ruddiger jumped from his shoulder, as he set on his cot and lay down with his back to the bars. The racoon curled up against his stomach and the boy stroked his bushy fur. Andrew didn’t speak to him again and the boy was thankful for this. He didn’t want to speak, nor to listen to him and certainly not to be manipulated by him. He didn’t want the man to see the silent tears in his eyes falling down his cheeks only to be seen by his sole friend.

The night passed painfully slowly, and Varian failed to drift into the protective embrace of sleep. His eyes burned uncomfortably from the tears and the tiredness that lay over him like an impenetrable veil, oppressive and cold. He should give in, he thought for what felt like the thousandth time that night, he should call a guard and tell him that he would obey the king's orders, even if the man did not comply with his conditions. 

When the golden light of the sun made its way through the tiny window above his head into the dark cell, the boy straightened up, petted the fur of the sleeping Ruddiger and stood up. He stepped reluctantly to the bars and opened his mouth, his heart pounding wildly in his chest, to call for someone before he could change his mind, before his stubbornness and pride could take possession of him again and he would turn down the only opportunity – if only for some time – to get out of this cell. Then he heard footsteps. The steps were heavy, the metal of the armour rattled through the corridor and the captain came around the corner with a deep, heavy scowl.

“The king wants to see you” the man said curtly stepping to his cell just like the night before. His eyebrows were deeply furrowed, and the teeth clenched tightly behind his thick moustache. Had the king changed his mind? Did he want to try to persuade him one more time? The boy nodded and held out his wrists with a deep swallow “take the animal with you” the captain said curtly and nodded at Ruddiger, who had meanwhile raised his head and was watching the man with a suspicious look.

“Ruddiger” Varian tapped on his knee and the raccoon immediately jumped up and climbed his arm up to his shoulder. The tiny claws of the animal bored lightly into the boy's skin and brought the usual security with them. No matter what happens, at least he wasn't alone.

The captain opened the bars and took the already familiar chains from his belt. The young alchemist held out his wrists again and it sent cold shivers down his spine as the shackles closed around his wrists. The icy metal bit into his already battered skin, but he suppressed the pain and followed the man out of the cell. The captain put a heavy hand on his shoulder as if he were afraid the boy would take a run. As if he could run away from a grown man, an experienced soldier. He wouldn’t come very far even if he did.

Why would the king want him to take Ruddiger with him? Was he willing to accept his conditions? Why would he do such a thing? Because he was desperate and people were dying, that’s why, Varian thought bitterly. For a single moment the anger flared up again in his heart, because he knew this feeling, he himself had walked into these very halls desperately pleading for them to help him. No one was willing to do so then so why should he do it now? For a moment he wanted to refuse, this time for good, so that the king could experience firsthand what it was like to lose everything. But this wish vanished pretty quickly, because it was childish and stupid. 

He was doing it again, thinking one thing in one moment and then the complete opposite in the other. He should stop doing this, it will do him no good, but, more importantly, it will do his father no good. That is the thing he should concentrate on, not petty revenge or his anger but to save his father even if he will be forced to help these people to do so.

The king received him in the same room as yesterday, the monarch himself sat behind his desk, his eyebrows were drawn together, his mouth disappeared behind his thick beard, but his jaw was tense. The queen stood behind him today as well, her hand on her husband's shoulder and this time Varian tried to look her in the face, but he couldn't, not this woman he almost killed. Instead, he let his gaze rest on the king, heated and tired at the same time, he was so damn tired of being angry, but he simply didn’t know how to stop.

“Sit down, boy” the king said just like the day before and pointed to the empty chair in front of him. This time Varian complied without a fuss and let himself sink into it. Ruddiger chattered suspiciously and wrapped his bushy tail protectively around the boy's neck, as if this gesture alone could protect his human from these people who were his enemies.

“Did you sleep well, Varian?” the queen asked softly, but the boy ignored her. The woman sighted deeply and continued with an earnest voice “my husband and I had a deep discussion about the situation and reached the conclusion to comply with your demands” after these words Varian's eyes flew up to her involuntarily, incredulous and confused. She gave him a gentle smile that stung a deep stab in his heart before he hastily turned away from her.

“We don’t have a choice, boy” the king growled “but I have to warn you. If you make even one wrong step, if I or one of my men get even the slightest impression that you are planning something, then your age will no longer save you from the gallows”

“So, you will let me continue my research to save my father?”Varian asked quietly and weekly. He wanted his voice to sound firmed and determined but he simply didn’t manage to do so.

“Yes, when this is all over and if you do nothing that seems suspicious to us, then I will let you continue with your research under strict observation” he could almost see the reluctance with which the king uttered these words and he wondered what exactly had convinced the monarch to change his mind.

“Write an order and sign it” the boy replied, because no, he will not make one mistake twice and trust someone.

“Varian, we will not break our promise” the queen said softly.

“That's what I thought of your daughter, too, before she let me be thrown out into a blizzard," the young alchemist raised his eyebrow mockingly. No, he would never be that stupid again.

“Oh, fine” the King rubbed his face in resignation and took a piece of paper from a drawer in his table. He dipped the quill in the ink and wrote, then put his seal on it, tossed sand on it, and pushed the paper over to Varian. The boy carefully turned it over and read:

I, King Frederik of Corona, hereby authorize the alchemist Varian to research the rescue of his father, Quirin, under strict observation after he has fulfilled his duty to the Kingdom of Corona.

The Corona sun shone under the king's curved signature. It would be enough, the boy decided after a few moments, carefully brushed the remaining grains of sand off the sheet and rolled up the paper before tucking it into his waistcoat.

“We have a deal” he nodded curtly, and he could do nothing with himself when the corners of his mouth wandered barely noticeably up on his own accord. The king fetched another piece of paper and pushed it over to Varian along with the inkwell and quill.

"Write down what you need," he said curtly. The young alchemist took up the pen, the chains rattled as he began to write - and it was really awkward to write like that - but after about five minutes he finished his list. The king scanned it in resignation, the queen leaned over his broad shoulder and read too.

"That should be possible," she finally said.

“I will need some samples of the substance” Varian said “have your men found more leaves like yesterday's?”

“There were some more in the village” the king nodded “we didn't bother to collect them all”

"We should set our base up near the village," said the queen, "so we will be close enough once the antidote is ready to use"

"There is an old mill near by, it was probably not close enough to the village for the crystals to cover it as well", the king stood up with Varians list firmly in his hand “captain, give the order to get these things and we will need a prisoner transport. Let five men get ready to lave for the village of Grogia”

“And the boy?”. The captain asked after taking the list from the king.

“Put him somewhere in the castle, bring him food and let him wash, the queen will leave with him in two hours” the queen will leave with him, Varian thought with a mixture of disbelief and a touch of fear. She will accompany him and he will be forced to be around her the whole time, the woman he couldn’t look in the face, who he nearly killed and who didn’t seem the least bit angry with him. 

His heart pounded loudly in his ears when the captain's firm hand pulled him to his feet and led him out of the room, he stumbled and would have fallen if the man hadn't held him up. 

He would not stand it, all this time in her presence, he would break, more than that, he would do something that she would interpret as dangerous and the king would take that as a reason to not keep his promise. Was that their plan? Have the queen say something so they wouldn’t have to hold their end of the bargain? It was probably so, he thought bitterly. He had to take his chance to get the chemicals and escape when this was all over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I changed some details from canon in this chapter. I have reasons for this. Firstly, no, I am not putting a fourteen-year-old in one cell with an adult dude. I like dark and terrible and I like it to let my characters suffer - I am an evil, sadistic, little author - but even I would not go that far.
> 
> Why Disney? Just why? When I watched this episode for the first time, I misheard it. Maybe it was because I was watching it in English, I understand everything quite well, but there are things I just miss. I really thought he was talking as if they were in neighboring cells. Maybe it was simply because I hadn’t expect it or something like that. I caught up to it when I read some fanfictions here. I would really like to know who exactly at Disney thought it was a good or even concerning idea to put it in a kids show...but it’s Disney, they managed to ruin Mulan, so...
> 
> Secondly, I just didn’t want to let Fred, the captain and the guards in the castle look like complete jerks... I mean, Fred did make some really shitty decisions, but he still is Rapunzel’s father, so...
> 
> See it just like plot convenience, it is tags as canon divergence, so...


	3. Chapter 3

It was amazing how quickly you tend to forget such simple things as cleanness once you spend some time in captivity. In the dungeons, the guards poured a bucket of cold water over their heads once a week, nothing more. But today they brought Varian in a room with a barrel of water that was actually big enough for him to climb into, they had taken his chains off and left him alone. He hadn’t felt so clean in months, almost like a human being again. Then they had brought him flesh cloths and wrapped gauze over his bettered wrists before snapping the shackles over them once again. 

The gauze was streaked with something, a mixture of herbs that tingled uncomfortably on his skin. Probably an ointment made from chamomile and comfrey, he had never really bothered to learn much about medicine, but he had sometimes helped the village healer mix his tinctures, so at least he knew a little bit about herbs. At least he had been helping him until he had tried to enhance his medicine with alchemy nearly causing a pandemic.

His hair was still slightly damp when Varian was brought into an open, bright room by two guards. There was a little table by the window, a delicate, filigree thing and at this table the queen sat with a cup in her fingers. At this sight Varian nearly run. Why was she here? How could she sit here at this table and calmly wait for someone who had kidnapped her, who had threatened her family, who had tried to kill her? Who almost trapped her in an amber prison for such lowly motives as revenge, just because he couldn't bear the thought that Rapunzel still had both parents while he himself didn't even know whether his father was still alive.

The guard behind Varian gave the boy a light, impatient push and he almost fell as he stumbled on trembling legs towards the queen. The woman raised her head, a light, gentle smile danced on her features, so much more confident than yesterday's, as if she had only needed one night to get over her trauma. Varian hastily turned his eyes to the delicate tea set on the table and the full plate on the side opposite the queen's. He just couldn't look at her, not now, probably never again. Ruddiger lifted his head on his shoulder, sniffed the air curiously before jumping off and running happily towards the woman.

“Ruddiger” Varian called after the animal automatically, but the raccoon didn't listen to him. He stopped in front of the table and stared curiously up at the woman, as if he were expecting her to put a cup of milk in front of his nose. As if she would do such a thing, she was a queen and a queen would never step so low as to…the woman laughed happily, took her saucer and poured milk into it from a small jug, which she placed in front of Ruddiger a few moments later.

“I've always wondered how you get around to keep a raccoon as a pet” she said easily, as if she wasn't talking to someone who has been ready to end her life. Varian made no reply, even if he had wanted to, he knew that not a syllable would escape his mouth. It was surreal, it was strange, almost wrong, to stand here in front of the queen, to see how she smiled, softly and kindly, almost like Rapunzel. The memory of the princess juncked him out of his trance, as if someone had poured a bucket of cold water over his head, because that woman over there was Rapunzel's mother and Rapunzel was responsible for all the suffering he had been to endure. 

He clenched his teeth hard enough for them ache and looked away. The little table was in front a large window, golden rays of sunshine were reflected in the porcelain of the teapot, he was even able to see treetops behind the glass. He would probably break all his bones if he tried to jump, he thought bitterly and for a moment he actually wanted to do it, out of sheer defiance, then Corona would perish and the king would suffer ... but then he would not be able to save his father. At that moment he could feel the king's signet order in his shirt, a silent, uncertain promise, and even if he never wanted to be stupid enough to believe a promise again, this worthless piece of paper planted hope in his heart, which should never germinate with all the terrible things he had experience and yet he couldn't help but believe in it.

“Varian” the queen spoke softly after not receiving an answer from him “take a seat, please”, from the corner of his eye he could see her pointing to the chair opposite from her. He ignored her “of course you can refuse. You can keep standing there and of course you can go without the food here” she continued, almost teasingly, as if he were a stubborn child and not a dangerous murderer “we can keep standing here for the next hour, it's up to you, but we can also talk”

“I don't know what about” he finally replied. His eyes wandered to the plate on their own account, followed the soft steam-clouds rising in the air. The hearty smell of meat and spices mingled with that of fresh dough: a quiche. He suppressed a gulp and suddenly realised how hungry he really was. 

Good food had never been very important to Varian, he could cook himself, mixing ingredients together was so similar to alchemy so it wasn’t surprising at all, but taste had never been a priority. Only in the dungeons of Corona the boy finally learned how terrible food could really taste. It made sense for the prisoners to get the worst. Cold, chewy broth of an undefined nature and burnt bread that would otherwise have been thrown away because nobody would buy it. Varian had almost gotten used to it in the three far to long month of his imprisonment. 

The quiche was like an insult, like a slap in the face, like a very subtle kind of torture so insignificant that you wouldn't even notice it as such. And yet it was just that - and it was more terrible than the musty air in the dungeons and the darkness in the corners of his cell - for it was a pleasant friendliness they could take away at any time. Something they could hold over his head like a sword of Damocles, even if it was nothing more than a small thing. But he had to eat if he wanted to escape, he needed strength to steal the chemicals and fight his way free when this was all over. So he sighed deeply and gave in. Ruddiger raised his head from the saucer curiously as if to ask what would happen next, and Varian gave him a weak, encouraging smile. The raccoon seemed satisfied with this answer and turned back to his food.

“We'll be leaving in about an hour, so you should eat, the journey will take a few hours” said the queen, pleased. Varian ignored her and took the fork. For a few moments he actually considered using it as a weapon, but what good would that do? He wasn't a fighter and a guard stood in front of the door with a real sword on his belt. This thought was more like a reminder to himself than a real consideration, a reminder that despite his tiredness, his weakness, his despair he still had not given up. A small, unnecessary consolation that meant more than he would have liked it to. 

The food could be poisoned, he thought bitterly. It was unlikely, they could have poisoned him this whole time, if they wanted to, heck, they could have executed him at any time. They needed him and that thought alone should put him at ease, but it didn’t. Even the thought to trust someone once again made him sick, so he simply couldn’t bring himself not to think about the worse possible outcome. He shrugged the thought away and put a forkful of quiche in his mouth. Even if he would die today it wouldn’t really make a difference. 

The taste almost exploded in his mouth, his taste receptors coming to life after all the horridness they had to endure over the past few months. It almost tasted like home, like a cozy evening with a book in his lap, like a sunset he would often watch from the roof of his now destroyed house ... it tasted like Dad. He pushed the distraction such thought would bring with it aside, buried it deep inside of him, and waited for the non-existent poison to take effect. Most poisons started working pretty quickly, at least the ones that would be used in an insidious murder. Varian waited a few minutes and felt nothing, then he cut the quiche in half with a fork, as he had always done, and carefully pushed one of them onto a saucer, which he then set on the floor. Ruddiger perked up, turned from the almost empty saucer of milk and padded towards the quiche.

“You thought it was poisoned” the queen asked flatly, as if the thought alone would cause her physical pain “why would you think…? We would never…” she broke off.

“I don’t trust you” he replied just as flatly as her. Why should he trust them, complete strangers who were his enemies, when his friends had already betrayed him? At first the queen did not reply, the silence between them oppressive and cold.

“I know” she finally said “Rapunzel told me what happened, at least her side of the story” she continued slowly, as if weighing every single word, tasting it on her tongue and deciding whether it was right before letting it leave her month.

“And what exactly did the princess' s side looks like?” the boy asked bitterly.

“She couldn't help you back then, the snowstorm threatened the kingdom and my husband and I weren't there so she had to take the lead” said the queen “she had to make some very difficult decisions that day”

“Poor princess” he snorted, stuffing a piece of the quiche into his mouth before he could say things he meant but perhaps shouldn't say in the presence of the queen.

“She had to send the man she loves on a very dangerous mission, she almost lost Pascal and us, my husband and me” she paused for a moment, as if she had to collect herself before she had to continue “she had to refuse to help a desperate friend in need”

“And yet you are all still alive” Varian replied, the anger working its way up in his mind, burning and tenacious, devouring every thought on its way like a swamp rememinding him why he was so angry in the first place. He swallowed it with the food that suddenly no longer tasted like home.

“Yes” the woman nodded “and yet we are all still alive” she fell silent and it was quiet for some moments. Then the queen took a deep breath and continued speaking in a firm voice “she was sorry, she felt terrible about it”

“She still didn’t come once the blizzard was over” he managed to say through clenched teeth, almost like a growl, but weaker, without the former bite that once floated in it. It was so tiring to be angry.

“Yes, she didn’t” the queen admitted “she was afraid of what she would find if she actually went to Old Corona. She was ashamed and convinced herself that the problem was solved when you didn’t come back”

“Well, it wasn’t solved”

“Varian, Rapunzel is a human and humans make mistakes” the queen shook her head gently “do you know why she told me all of this? She wanted me to understand, she didn’t want me to see you as a monster, she wanted you to be helped”

“She should have helped me when it mattered” he replied monotonously, as if every feeling had left his body, even the anger “now it’s to late” the queen was silent after these words and Varian hoped that the conversation would end here, because it was more tiring than all those days in the dungeon. But she continued to speak, calmly, as if she had made a decision that Varian knew nothing about.

“All right” she said “we'll talk about it another time. What will our course of action against Agamon be?”

“Why are you coming with me?” he asked back, something that had preoccupied him this whole time.

“I’ve looked into alchemy for the past few months” the queen replied willingly “after the battle I read your notes and your books. I will observe your work”

“You think you know enough about alchemy now, just because you've read a few books?” he snorted contemptuously. He himself had acquired his knowledge from books, without a teacher, but even he had needed years to do so. That she thought she would have enough knowledge after just three months to judge his work was almost an insult, as was the fact that his notes and his laboriously assembled collection of books were probably gathering dust in the royal library and in a few years no one will probably know who they belonged to.

“No, but I know more than most” the queen shrugged, unimpressed.

“Where's the princess anyway? Shouldn't she go out now and defeat the villain with her… magic hair?” he asked further, a strange pang in his heart, because he had at least expected that Rapunzel would be the one who asks him for help in such a situation. Even if he never wanted to see her again, it was at least strange that she wouldn't appeal to their former friendship - as if something was left of it - maybe sing a song, but instead she wasn't even here.

“Oh, of course, you don't know yet” the queen lifted her cup to her lips for a moment, before continuing calmly “Rapunzel and her friends went out to find out more about the black rocks. They haven't been in Corona for three months” it was like a slap in the face, as if he were falling, deep down without ever arriving. Now they were doing something, now that it was too late, they went out and did something about the danger he had recognized months before that fateful blizzard. Varian clenched his fists as he began to speak slowly, his voice strangely shacky:

“So now you are doing something?”

“Yes” the queen admitted “now we are doing something” she was silent for a few moments, letting him fight his anger down again before continuing “but that is not our concern at this moment. Our priority right now is Agamon”

“What does he even want? Why is he doing it?” Varian pushed the half-full plate away, because he didn't want to eat anymore, probably wouldn't get a bite in the light of this news. Instead of answering, the queen handed him a neatly folded, previously crumpled piece of paper. The boy took it, unfolded it and began to read. He could almost physically feel the anger emanating from the jagged words, he could almost see the man who had written them, his face twisted in anger until it could no longer be considered human.

“I guess it runs in the family to break promises” he said when he finished reading.

“The flower was far too dangerous to give it away carelessly, Frederic paid Agamon a small fortune for his services” the queen defended her husband.

“And now he wants what he was promised to get” continued Varian and an ice-cold shiver ran down his spine, because the flower was ... “but you cannot give it to him because I destroyed it”

“Frederic would not have given it to him even if it had still existed” the woman shook her head “so, to come back to my previous question, do you already have an idea how we are going to proceed?” following her words he thought for a while and finally spoke slowly, each word carefully chosen:

“I will first have to determine what type of crystal it is. It is probably a mixture of individual substances that have produced something new. How did the crystal spread over the village?”

“The messenger who brought us the news saw it from afar. It grew pretty fast and covered everything” said the queen, it all sounding too much like the amber Varian had accidentally created.

“Were back rocks nearby?” the young alchemist asked flatly, because if they were…

“No, not that we know of, we don't think that the rocks have anything to do with it” she shook her head and Varian exhaled in relief.

“Are there any indications that magic has been used?” he asked further and it was easier to talk about it, without emotions, without sentimentalism, it was a completely scientific problem, it was logical, even if human lives were at stake.

“Not that I know of”

“My hypothesis is that he took a mineral, mixed it with another substance that let the crystal grow, then heated it above the melting point until it turned into a gas. All he had to do next was to let the gas escape at the village” Varian said thoughtfully “Do you have the crystal with you?” the queen handed it to him wordlessly. This time the boy took it, turned it in his finders “it looks polished”

“Is that unusual?” the queen asked curiously.

“A natural crystal would never be so clear” Varian shook his head “look, you can see the leaf inside very clearly, natural crystals are milky, we would only see a vague outline, if at all”

“So this second substance made the crystal clear?” the queen asked “You should keep eating, dear” Varian absentmindedly pushed the plate back towards him and stuffed a forkful of quiche into his mouth, not really realizing what he was doing, his mind wholly focused on the problem he was facing.

“Probably” he nodded “it has a slightly bluish to purple colour, but this could also have been caused by the unknown substance”,

“So the original crystal could have been any colour?”

“The colour should not be too dominant, otherwise it would not produce this light colour” he turned the crystal again in his fingers “the crystal system looks trigonal, but this impression could be falsified by the grinding optics”

“And trigonal means?” the queen asked helplessly.

“Crystals are classified into different categories based on point groups, with trigonal crystals there are 3, periodic 3, 32, 3m and periodic 3m” explained Varian almost enthusiastically, since most people would have stopped listening to him after they heard the word trigonal “that narrows it down”, Varian added a little bit meekly.

“This way you can narrow down which mineral Agamon used?” the woman said a little confused and put her hand to her forehead “this is more complicated than I thought”

“I'll have to do a few tests, but yes, I don't have to test all minerals like that, just those that fit into this crystal system” Varian nodded and he would have continued if the door hadn't been opened and a guard in golden armour would not have come to them. It was as if the man had destroyed an invisible spell and Varian suddenly became aware of where he was and who he was talking to. He suddenly became aware of the chains around his wrists, heavy and oppressive and cold. He was a prisoner and the woman in front of him, with whom he had just talked about what he loved most, was the queen, Rapunzel's mother, his enemy. 

It was like a slap in the face, like a bucket of ice-cold water. He had spoken to her openly, shared his thoughts with her, simply because he was glad to be able to use his knowledge again. In this conversation he had completely forgotten what had happened to him, what had been done to him. He had suddenly felt like himself again, a boy who loved knowledge, not the little bundle of anger he had become. Talking to her like that was a weakness, a weakness he did not want to allow himself to have. She was the enemy, and he only did this for the slim chance of saving his father, nothing more, nothing less. He swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat and clenched his fists. He wouldn't allow himself that weakness again.

“Your Majesty” the guard bowed deeply to the queen “the preparations are complete, you can set out”

“Thank you, Lieutenant Kai” she nodded to him “will you be leading the squad?”

“Yes, I will” the man nodded “as ordered, I will accompany you with four of my men”

“Then we should go” the queen replied “are you ready, Varian?”

“Yes” he replied tonelessly and the lieutenant pulled him to his feet not all too gently. Ruddiger cackled dissatisfied, jumped up his arm and positioned himself as usual on his shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that was the third chapter, I hope you enjoyed it
> 
> I googled the part with the crystals for the most part. I looked at a couple of Wikipedia articles and of course I have no idea what I'm talking about. I just wanted something scientific, and most of all I wanted to show that Varian actually knows what he's talking about. So don't take it too seriously.


	4. Chapter 4

The carriage Varian had been led into was a box-shaped wooden thing with benches on each side and a small barred window a few inches below the ceiling, not unlike the one the boy had been thrown into after the battle of Old Corona. It was quite dark inside, and it brought back memories that lurked on the edge of his mind like a wild animal, ready to ruthlessly ram its sharp teeth into its victim. He remembered exactly how it had been, how he had been crouching on the floor in a corner, his hands heavy from the chains, his racing thoughts filled with anger and fear, the burning tears in his eyes and Ruddiger's bushy fur as the only comfort.

Today he was standing on one of the benches, holding onto the bars of the window and peering out into the freedom that he would probably never regain. The carriage swayed as it drove over the trampled path and each time the wheels went over a stone the boy had to tighten his grip until his knuckles were white to keep himself from falling. If he was not mistaken, they had already been on the road for about an hour and in that time, he had managed to fall from the bench twice. The back of his head throbbed uncomfortably from the bump from the last time, but he didn't really care because he was used to bumping into something, as clumsy as he often was. The view was worth that bit of pain, because even if Varian wouldn't admit it to anyone, he had missed it.

The fresh air hit him from the small, unglazed window, the sun shone on his face and he could see trees and fields as they continued to travel on. At this sight he suddenly realized how long he hadn't been outside. When his father was still there and when the world was still all right, he hadn't been out in the fresh air that often. His books and his experiments were more important to him and his father had to chase him out of the house on some days so he would come outside once in a while, maybe even spoke to other boys his age or even met a girl. Acted like a normal child. 

He had never gotten on very well with the village boys, they were stupid and avoided him because he wasn't like them and he avoided them for the same reasons. Ironically, Rapunzel had been his first real friend, even though she was much older than him and see where that led him to. But at that moment the boy was not thinking of Rapunzel and her betrayal, not of his father, who was still trapped in amber, not even about the heavy chains laying icily around his wrists. His eyes followed every tree that sped past him, every little figure of a person working in the fields in the distance. 

Ruddiger sat on his shoulder as usual and peered out too, his little claws digging gently through the fabric of his shirt into his skin and his bushy tail laid like a scarf around his neck. For the duration of this journey the boy felt better, no anger inside of him, no worry, no fear - just because he could see the outside world, albeit through a grille in a closed carriage.

Hours passed, the landscape sped by and the boy and raccoon followed it with their eyes. It was almost a shame when the carriage finally stopped. It was an abrupt halt, the wooden box shook as the wheels came to a stop and the grille slipped from Varian's fingers. The boy fell off the bench and hit the back of his head against the other bench for the fifth time this day. For a few moments stars danced their wild dance before his eyes and he shook his head to drive them away. With a groan, the boy straightened up, rubbed the back of his head, and felt the bump under his fingers. Ruddiger chittered worriedly and the boy petted his head soothingly. It wasn't the worst fall he'd had in his life. 

The door of the carriage opened with a high-pitched squeak and a guard peeked in, gloved hand on the hilt of the sword. In a way, it was satisfying that they were so afraid of him, but at the same time it was quite annoying. What should he even be able to do? Even if he had actually had a weapon, he wouldn't be able to do anything against an adult, let alone a soldier. Life would be a lot easier if he hadn’t been fourteen.

“Get out” the guard spoke with a dark voice. Ruddiger chittered at him, almost insulted, had the raccoon had hands, he would be probably shaking his fist in front of the man's nose, or possibly made other gestures that would not be particularly nice. Varian got to his feet and stepped to the edge of the carriage, jumped down and almost slipped on the mud if the man hadn't grabbed his upper arm. The man didn’t let go of him after that. 

The carriage stopped in front of a mill. The mill blades did not move, one of them was half destroyed, the membranes between the wood, which had broken off in some places, were cracked and mouldy. The wall of the mill had once been white, but time had turned it darker, the bricks yellowed and dirty. Not far from Varian's carriage was the queen's coach. The woman herself was standing with two maids she had taken with her, each of them with a pile of books in their hands - and Varian wanted to run to them and snatch them out of their hands just to be able to hold one in his hands again - in front of the splendid vehicle. 

The guard who had still a hold on his shoulder pulled him unabashedly and not particularly gently over to the queen. The woman smiled at him before he, as usual, looked away from her stubbornly starring at the bricks of the mill. He felt incredibly stupid not being able to look the woman in the face and yet he couldn't bring himself to do so.

“This is where we will set up the lab” she said.

“I would like to see the village first” spoke Varian and the soldier's grip on his upper arm grew stronger, becoming almost painful.

“Yes, that would be a good idea” nodded the queen.

“Your Majesty, are you sure it would be a good idea to take the boy there with you?” asked the guard, giving Varian a suspicious look “he might try to take a run”

“I don’t think he would” replied the queen, turning directly to Varian “do you need something specific, dear?”

“Something to write would be good” was the boy's reply, it was easier to talk to her when he kept it completely to the point.

“Helga, would you be so kind?” the queen turned to one of the maids, who hurried to the carriage and came back with a leather-bound notebook and a piece of coal, which the woman accepted with a grateful smile “the village is a few miles away from here. Lieutenant Kai, would you please have the lab set up in the meantime?” it was like music to Varian's ears, this word: 'lab'. It was nothing more then a series of letters, but in fact so much more then that. A lab, he will be able to be in a lab again, he will be able to do things again, carry out experiments, he will ... he almost regretted having suggested to go to the village. But the queen was already going, and the guard pulled the boy after her.

They didn't have to walk long, just down the hill the mill stood upon, and Varian could see the village from afar. From a distance it looked almost as if the village had been covered in snow. And even if the sight reminded him painfully of that fateful blizzard that had sealed his fate, he couldn't help but describe it as beautiful.

It didn't snow that often in Corona, Varian had been five when he saw snow for the first time. He could still remember exactly the words his father had said to him back then, that the white, cold flakes that trickled down from the sky were called 'snow'. The man had told him a story about the snow queen from Arendale who rod across the sky in her sleigh letting the snow trickle down from her coat like rain. Snow, of course, didn't come from a snow queen or some other mythical creature that didn't exist. Snow was in fact water vapor that formed droplets in the clouds and froze into an ice crystal lattice before they fell out of the cloud when they were heavy enough. But Quirin had tried quite often to explain scientific phenomena through fairy tales and had even forbidden his son to tell the children from the village the truth in order to not destroy their fairy tale world. Of course, the village wasn't covered in snow and ice crystals, but the boy couldn't help but draw this allegory.

The entrance to the village was formed by a high archway on which the bluish crystals snaked up like tendrils, strange tendrils made out of crystal, which in some places were as clear as the one around the leaf and in others had the cloudy surface of a natural mineral crystalline. Now it was much easier to determine the crystal system of the substance and the boy noticed with a slight spark of pride that he had not been mistaken, it was indeed trigonal, especially in the cloudy areas one could see it particularly clearly.

“I have to come nearer” Varian told the guard, who was still holding his forearm in a fierce grip and made no move to let go of him, “and I need the notebook”

“Let go of him, Henrik” said the queen and handed the boy the notebook and the coal. Henrik gave him a suspicious look but let go and put his hand on the hilt of his sword instead. For a few moments Varian considered doing something, running, throwing himself at the guard or the queen, anything that would belie this woman's strange, utterly improper trust. It bothered him more then he liked to that she thought he wasn't going to do anything. He was dangerous, he had done terrible things, was even ready to kill people and he knew very well that, at least then, he would have been completely indifferent if he had succeeded. And now she stood there, trusting that he wouldn't betray her. 

He hated that trust, for trust was worth nothing, brought nothing but disappointments with it, because if it weren't so, he wouldn't be standing here in chains now, his father would be alive and he would still have friends, who hadn't betrayed him. But that was not the case and the boy actually had to force himself to defy the inner impulse and calmly approach the archway. He reached out and put his fingers to the surface. In the cloudy areas, the crystal was rough as it should be, the surface was light blue with isolated white areas that stretched over it like mould. In the transparent places it was smooth, almost like a polished gemstone, the colour a light, even blue that gave the wood under it a strange hue. Varian opened the notebook and documented his observation, making a small sketch of the two types of crystal.

“So?” the queen asked curiously, peering over his shoulder, so close that he winced and took a hasty step forward, away from her.

“The crystal is irregular” he said reluctantly “here” he pointed at one of the cloudy spots “it looks like a naturally formed crystal, but here” now he pointed to the clear surfaces “it looks like as if it had been edited by humans” then he strode through the archway without waiting for an answer. The guard quickly caught up with him and put a heavy hand on his shoulder and the young alchemist slowed down with a grumble. 

It didn't look much better inside. A thin surface of the crystal stretched across the ground, almost completely cloudy, it crept over the buildings and the trees, covering them all under itself like a huge blanket and Varian had to choke down the lump in his throat because all of this reminded him too much of his father and the amber that held him prisoner. He could see sole figures on the streets, frozen in their terror, their mouths widened in a silent scream or their hands clasped in front of them and the boy could not tell if they were still alive.

“That’s terrible” breathed the queen next to him, her hands clasped over her mouth, her eyes wide open as she cast her gaze over the dead silent village. Varian ignored her and continued his expertise. He went to the houses, to the people, wrote everything down. The crystal over the people was perfectly clear and only formed a thin layer over their skin, it was the same over the houses in some places, but so cloudy in others that one could not see through it. He documented everything neatly, letting his first theories emerged on the pages. 

He went to the trees, collected a few more samples of the leaves, some as clear as the first and others cloudy until nothing could be seen through, and pressed them into the hands of the disaffected guard. He peeked into the houses and counted the moving shadows he could make out, measured the buildings with his steps and wrote this down as well. 

The queen was always on his heels, asking him questions that were not entirely useless and that he answered even when he did not want to talk to her. It was late afternoon when Varian finally finished his exploration, when he had visited every corner of the village, when there was nothing left to write in his notebook and he had to say, almost with regret, that they could go back to the mill. On the way back, the guard grabbed Varian's upper arm again, tight as a shackle and the boy tripped over protruding roots. Ruddiger had jumped off his shoulder and ran ahead of them as if he were showing the humans the way.

The lab was finished when their small group returned. The guards had cleared the round room on the top level of the mill completely, had set up wide wooden tables on the walls on which pistons and hoses were sitting, and Varian's heart skipped a beat. He had missed it almost as much as he missed his father. On one of the walls stood a large blackboard with chalk, just as he had asked, and on the floor near the tables laid the books he had seen the maids carry.

“I will need my hands” Varian said tonelessly and held out his chained wrists to the nearest guard.

“Of course. If you would be so kind” the queen nodded, turning to the same guard, and the boy could see the reluctance in the eyes of all the man present in the room. But they said nothing, for what should they say against the word of their queen? Henrik walked over to him and undid the heavy cuffs around his wrists, then grabbed a chain that had been hammered into the wall and which Varian hadn't noticed yet and fastened it around the boy's right ankle.

“The king’s order” he said shortly, and Varian wanted to be angry, but found no strength in himself to do so. The chain was long enough and wouldn't hinder his work, so he said nothing and went to one of the tables with the neatly folded gloves, apron and googles laying on it. It was a strange feeling to put on gloves again after all these months, to pull an apron over his head and finally to position the goggles on his forehead. 

Until his captivity he had only taken these things off for sleeping and bathing, they had become an integral part of himself, like Rapunzel's golden hair or Eugene's dazzling smile or Cassandra's sword, and it had been really hard to lose them. Without them, the boy felt almost naked, as if someone had taken a part of his soul away from him and when he put on these familiar things, he felt a little bit like himself again, not like the angry thing he had degenerated to but like the alchemist, the scientist he really was.

“So, what do we start with?” the queen clapped her hands, much too happily. Varian thought for a few heartbeats, then turned to her without, of course, looking her in the face.

“I will first have to determine how much time people in the houses have left” he said and went to the board. With every step the chain rattled around his foot and he almost tripped over it, but it was definitely more comfortable than the handcuffs.

“Their time is limited?” the queen hurried after him worried.

“People need air to breath” he rolled his eyes in annoyance, she should know at least that “air can not come through the crystals, so they have only a limited amount of oxygen left. Sooner or later they will run out of it”

“By the sun” the woman breathed. Varian picked up the chalk and began to do the math. He could feel her eyes following his hand without really catching up. After a while he stopped, underlining the not particularly reassuring result. Seven days, the first would die after seven days.

“When did the crystal appear?” he asked tonelessly. They had already lost time with their journey, with his childish defiance, they had already lost far too much time, time these people did not have.

“The night before last” replied the queen, stepping over to him and peering at the result. He crossed out the seven and wrote 'five' instead.

“In five days the first people will begin to die” he announced in a grave voice, with a heavy lump in his throat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And another chapter is done...
> 
> I googled the thing with the oxygen limitation, there even was a formula and so on, but I hadn‘t done the math to get en exact time period. I just took what was stated as realistic aud left it at that. Basically, it mostl depents in how big the rooms are and how many people are in them and so on.
> 
> Anyway, now that they are finelly in the village, the story can start properly...in the fourth chapter...


	5. Chapter 5

It was fascinating to watch Varian work. After the not so promising prognosis for the people in the houses – and it planted a heavy lump in Arianna’s stomach for five days sounded so incredibly short - the boy wiped the equation off the blackboard with a rag. At the top he wrote the number five, as a reminder that time was slipping through their fingers like water. Underneath he had written a list of minerals and even if he didn't explain what they meant, she knew that they were probably the materials which Agamon could have used as the basis for his deadly creation. Arianna only recognized some of them, of course she knew what quartz was, but some of the terms were a complete mystery to her. But she did not ask.

She had reasons not to ask. On the one hand she didn’t want them to waste any time for they had very little left of it. On the other she didn’t want Lieutenant Kai – who was following every movement of the boy like an eagle would follow its prey, as if hoping Varian would do something he could consider dangerous – to realise how little of an idea she had about the experiments he was doing. She really had no idea what was happening in front of her eyes.

When she had told Frederik yesterday evening that she had studied alchemy, that she would notice if Varian did something he shouldn't, she hadn't lied. In her naivety she had actually expected to understand more than others and maybe she did, and yet her knowledge was insufficient for all of this.

The boy stumbled through the lab, mixing things together, some of them showing no reaction at all and he unabashedly threw them into a corner like a child, but he was in fact a child. Coloured smoke rose from others, which he sniffed, and Arianna would have loved to drag him away, because it couldn't possibly be healthy. And others, others, exploded in a strange, bright light and the guards in the room nervously reached for their swords, ready to face a danger that was not there. Once he even accidentally threw down a stand with pistons that shattered on the floor and the shards of which he unabashedly pushed under the table with his foot and Arianna called for Helga, who swept them up. It was a miracle that the mill was still standing.

Arianna had no idea what was going on, she had no idea what substances the boy was mixing together and what would come out of it. He might as well be building a bomb, mixing up a poison or a drug, and she wouldn't even notice. But somewhere deep down she knew it wasn't true. She didn't know where this realisation came from, but she wanted to believe in it, to believe that this boy before her wasn't a monster. To believe that something of the boy Rapunzel had told her about managed to save himself behind all his anger and despair. Maybe it was naive, maybe it was stupid, but she wanted so much to be right that she remained silent and let him do his work.

It was as if Varian had revived between the pistons and the smoke, as if he had momentarily forgotten where he was and what happened to him. That men with swords stood behind him, men who would not hesitate to kill him should he happen to make a mistake. That a chain lay over his ankle, which he sometimes stumbled over, even fell a few times without really paying attention to it. Ruddiger rushed through the lab, as if he were at home here and the boy absentmindedly kept pulling him away from the chemicals on which the raccoon was sniffing in his curiosity. As if it were normal, but it probably was. Here, between the pistons and the hoses, he was at home and Arianna was almost sorry to have dragged him away from there.

At some point Helga and Sofia – the maids that Arianna had taken with her on this trip – brought them lunch and the queen almost had to drag Varian away from his work, which he had to leave with obvious reluctance. They barely talked during dinner, well, Arianna talked, and the boy ignored her when she didn't ask questions about his work. She wanted to continue the conversation they had before leaving, about Rapunzel and the tragedy that had led to all of this, but she didn't. She knew that he wouldn't talk about it, didn't want to talk about it, wasn't ready to talk about it, and it wasn't urgent, she would come back to it later, because it was something they had to discuss, but now it was truly not the right time for it.

After the meal, the boy had left the table almost in a hurry, as if her very presence was causing him physical pain. The queen let him, she sat down and watched. She opened a diary, perhaps for the first time in years, and wrote about her observations. She should write a letter to Rapunzel, Arianna thought, of course, when it was all over, when Agamon was defeated and they were no longer in danger. Her daughter would be happy to hear that her friend was doing better, at least here. That the boy she had once known still existed, that he was not lost forever.

Hours passed and the sun disappeared behind the horizon, going to sleep and leaving the stage to her white sister. The moon was full tonight and danced with the stars across the dark sky. Rapunzel would want to draw it, thought the queen, lost in thought, and scribbled a little sketch in the notebook. She wasn't an artist like her daughter and the starry sky on the page looked more like a strange pile of earth with even stranger spots on it, which with the best will could never pass for this beaty of the nature.

It reminded her of Rapunzel. Of her laughter, of her joy, of her energetic nature...she missed her terribly and even though she knew that her daughter will not disappear for eighteen long years this time, she could not help but be afraid of never seeing her little, brave girl again. Where was she now? What was she thinking about? Whit whom from her little, colourful group was she talking in this very moment? What was she laughing at? Was she seeing the same sky that her mother was looking up to just now? With a gentle smile, Arianna closed the notebook and let her fingers slide over its leathery surface. She should go out tomorrow and find a flower to stick it between the pages, as she had always done in her travels. She wasn't in a distant country this time, and yet it was a little adventure that was worth remembering.

Varian was still working at one of his tables, hunched deep over its surface. She glanced at the blackboard, one of the terms was already crossed out 'manganese carbonate', she should ask him later what it was. The night outside the window was jet black, a dark cloud pushed itself in front of the moon and dimmed its silvery glow. It must have been long past midnight, if not even later, they should go to sleep, Arianna thought, getting up from her seat.

“Varian” she called the boy. The raccoon raised its head, stretched like a cat, and jumped off the table, but Varian didn't respond. Of course, it could well be that he ignored her again, as childish as it may sound, and yet it was far more likely that he hadn't heard her, as absorbed in his work as he was. She called out to him again and took a step towards him, with the same result, so she bridged the distance between them.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see Henrik and Georg, the guards who were on duty now, nervously laying their hands on the sword handles and she rolled her eyes. She could defend herself against an unarmed child, thank you very much for the lack of confidence in her more than mediocre fencing skills, which she had acquired on her long journeys, on which she had not always had a protector with her. She put a hand on the boy's bony shoulder and he winced, the chemical in his hand spilled out of the flask and landed with a hiss in the fire of the Bunsen burner, another flask was simmering over. She hastily pulled the boy away from the smoke rising from the fire, it's smell stinging her nostrils like too strong perfume.

“It’s getting late” she spoke softly, tacking the plunger out of his hands and putting a cork in the opening before carefully placing it on the table and putting out the fire with a cloth “We should go to sleep” the boy threw a longing look at his work surface he now had to leave.

“We don’t have time to…” he broke off when it occurred to him that he wasn't actually talking to her, or at least was trying to do so.

“It will not do anyone any good if you pass out with tiredness” she replied gently and pulled him away from the tables “you can continue tomorrow. Would you be so kind” she turned to the two guards and Georg stepped up to them and loosened the chain from Varian's ankle before they all went out, closely followed by Ruddiger.

The room that the maids had prepared for Arianna was of course much smaller than she was used to. The mill – they had converted in such a way and which by no means was suitable to live in – was not offering enough space for it and yet it was more than enough. It made her think back to her travels with a touch of nostalgia, when she had stayed in even stranger places, arguably even less suitable for a princess, who she had been at that time.

The maids had divided the room into two parts with a wooden room divider and thus shielded it from the spiral staircase that led up and down. They placed a mattress on one of the walls behind it, which they loaded with all kinds of blankets and pillows until it was no more recognizable as such. Candlesticks stood scattered on the walls, bathing the room in a dim light as their flames flickered gently in an invisible breeze. The shutters in front of the small, unglazed window were wide open and let in a breath of fresh air together with the silvery glow of the moon and Arianna stepped up to the opening and peeked out.

In the distance she could see the village, from here the crystal looked almost like snow, as if the village would only experience a white winter and not the horror Agamon had carried to their gates. It looked almost beautiful when the moon, which has now emerged from behind the cloud, was reflected in the clear areas of the surface and made them sparkle like stars.

“Do you need something, your Majesty?” Sofia peeked out from behind the divider with a candle in her hands.

“No, thank you, Sofia, I would like to go to sleep now” the queen shook her head.

“Helga and I are sleeping just behind the divider” the maid said “we will hear you if you need something”

“Thank you and good night” Arianna nodded, and the girl disappeared behind the divider after a deep curtsey. Arianna took one last look out of the window, closed the shutters letting in only a thin strip of light and blew the candles out before she changed clothes for the night and went to bed.

Through the experiences on her travels, the queen was able to get used to new places and new sleeping arrangements very quickly. With a gentle smile she remembered how difficult it was for Frederic to fall asleep in a foreign bed when they were on diplomatic trips to other kingdoms. But Arianna could sleep on the cold forest ground just as well as in the finest bed filled with the softest feathers. Sleep found her quickly that night and had been deep and firm before she awoke in the morning, perfectly rested.

Arianna had always been an early bird. She knew queens who only woke up when the sun was high in the sky, who lay in their beds for hours after waking up without doing anything productive with themselves. Arianna couldn’t quite understand such behaviour, the day offered so much more than a soft bed and air that you could stare into without actually seeing anything in it, after all. She still remembered Rapunzel describing her days in the tower, how she had already done a thousand things before breakfast, because she just couldn't sit still, because she had to move, because she couldn't stand to do nothing with herself. In this regard Arianna was the same.

Of course, she wasn’t doing the same things her daughter did in this horrible tower that once have been her home and prison at the same time. But she still often rose long before Frederic, she often would read a book, go through her mail, ask the old lady Crowley about the work of the maids for she wanted to know what was going on in her home. So, it was no wonder that she woke up with the first rays of sunshine.

She opened the shutters and looked out. The sun was just rising from the horizon and bathing the sky in a beautiful, reddish shade. Rapunzel would want to paint it, the woman thought with a gentle smile. Maybe she should learn how to paint, she considered as she combed her hair, it would make a wonderful new hobby that would bring her closer to her daughter, that would bridge the wait until she could hold her little girl in her arms again. Yes, she should do just that, once this was all over, once she no longer had to worry about the safety of her people, she thought a little bitterly and her good mood faded, because yes, they were all in danger and they were all suffering. With a deep sigh, the queen dressed and stepped out from behind the divider.

Sofia and Helga were both awake, both busy and Arianna felt strange about being the last to get up.

“Good morning, your Majesty” both girls curtsied slightly.

“Good morning” the queen greeted back “is Varian up yet?”

“The boy is up in the lab” Sofia nodded “I don’t think he was getting much sleep tonight”, she added slightly meekly, something undefined in her voice that almost seemed like pity and Arianna sighed deeply. She knew that the guards were instructed to watch him at any time, even at night when he had to rest in order to have enough strength to do his part of their bargain. She also knew that the boy would spend the night one level above her with the whole squad. Two of the man would stay on duty. So, it was understandable that he wouldn't get any sleep, she herself wouldn’t if she were in a room with armed men who wouldn't hesitate to kill her. But she had hoped that the boy would at least get some sleep, as tired as he looked “should we bring the breakfast up to the lab?” the maid junked her out of her thoughts.

“Yes, please” the queen nodded and climbed the stairs up to the lab. As yesterday Varian was tinkering over his tables, soft clouds of smoke were rising from them and disappearing up on the ceiling. Ruddiger lay in a corner this time, curled up in a ball of fur and watched the guards, now Jonas and Finn, suspiciously with his black button eyes, as if he could protect his human from them this way. Jonas stood by the window and looked out and the lieutenant would probably have reprimanded him for it, but Arianna let him get away with it, the less dark gazes on the boy, the better. Finn, however, followed every movement of the young alchemist, his hand on the hilt of his sword and his face dark with suspicion.

“Good morning” Arianna greeted into the room. Jonas and Finn bowed deeply, Varian ignored her, Ruddiger happily ran up to her and snuggled briefly against her leg like a cat. She leaned down and petted his head briefly. At least one of them was happy to see her. Another mineral was crossed out on the board, 'calcium carbonate'.

“Good morning, Varian” she approached the boy. He flinched and froze in his movement, then he finally turned to face her. His eyes flickered over her for a moment before settling somewhere behind her. He still couldn't look her in the face. Maybe because he still blamed her for everything that had happened to him, but a small, hopeful glimmer in her heart wanted to believe this was not the case, that he might feel guilty for what he had done to her.

She wasn't angry with him, not really, and of course she didn't want him to suffer, but if he actually felt guilty for what he'd done, it was a necessary, if painful, step in the right direction, that he had to do before it could get any better. He had to take this step alone, as cruel as it might sound, but he had to figure out on his own that what he had done was wrong. Nobody could make this realization for him; nobody could make the decision to regret for him and it would be of no use if someone tried. She really hoped that he would find the strength in himself to do just that and she would reach out to him when the time came, pull him back on his feet and give him what he really needed: forgiveness. But until that time came all she could do was wait and she waited. So, she really hoped that remorse was what kept his eyes away from her, and not hate.

“Good morning, your Majesty” he finally replied quietly, probably out of sheer politeness rather than out of the will to talk to her. But she clung to that tiny spark of contact he had allowed her.

“Did you sleep well?” Arianna asked more to continue the conversation than anything else. After all, she knew the answer, it was written on his face. In the pallor of his skin, which made the freckles around his nose stand out even more making them look almost sickly. In the deep shadows under his tired eyes and the mother in her would have loved to send him back to bed, but she knew very well that she couldn't, because they had no time for it, the people in the houses had no time for it. The boy shrugged indifferently and turned back to his table. The queen peeked over his shoulder, seeing a reddish substance seething in a flask just like yesterday.

“Is there any progress?” she asked curiously.

“It's not calcium carbonate” he shrugged again “I'm going through the silicates right now, at least the ones that are trigonal, then I'll continue with quartz”

“Breakfast will be ready soon, after that you will show me how I can help, dear” she smiled at him and stepped back to her seat, which she had already occupied yesterday and where she did not want to spend the whole day again.

“Why would you want to…?” he broke off.

“Its my kingdom” Arianna shrugged. Yes, it was her kingdom, and it was her people who suffered, who were stuck in their homes and it was probably her only chance to forge a bound with the boy. But before that she had to have a deep talk with their lieutenant for they could not afford their only hope to collapse because he couldn’t get enough sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this was chapter 5. I don‘t really have something to say this time. So...


	6. Chapter 6

Arianna found Lieutenant Kai downstairs by the mill's entrance, his eyes fixed on the road ahead of him, as if even now that he was apparently taking a break, he was still on guard, still ready to face any danger, that could appear on the horizon. The queen came up to him resolutely, her hands buried in the hem of her dress.

“Good morning, Lieutenant Kai” she greeted with her usual soft smile that had become a part of herself a long time ago.

“Good morning, Your Majesty, I hope you slept well despite the sparse accommodation” the man bowed deeply.

“Oh, I certainly have” she nodded “but there is something I would like to discuss with you”

“Has something happened?” Kai asked alarmed.

“Not at all” Arianna shook her head “I would like to discuss Varian's accommodation for the night with you. I know my husband's orders, that you are not to let him out of your sight even for one moment, but I would prefer it, if you could let him alone at least for the night so he can sleep peacefully”

“None of my men touched him” the man said indignantly.

“I didn't say that they have” Arianna replied “he needs his sleep, Lieutenant. He can’t get any with five armed men standing over him, ready to kill him if he happens to make a mistake”

“We don’t have the order to kill him” the lieutenant replied a little evasively, as if he weren't going to give his own opinion on the subject – and it bothered the woman more than she had expected, this knowledge that the man in front of her wasn't going to kill Varian just because he was not ordered to do so.

“You have taken part in the battle of Old Corona, am I right?” she asked despite knowing the answer. Of course, he was, they all were.

“Yes, and I've seen for myself what this boy is capable of” the lieutenant nodded curtly, but she could see the anger behind it, simmering on the surface, heatedly directed at a child who in a way actually deserved it, but was still nothing then a child. She sighed deeply, suddenly more tired than she should be.

“I know, I was there as well” she replied “but we need him. He is the only one who can do something against Agamon, and he will be able to do it faster when he is rested. So please, do not position your men in the same room as him, at least for the night”

“His Majesty ordered us not to let him out of our sight and his decision was wise. We can’t know what the boy will do once he is alone” Kai shook his head “with all respect your Majesty, do not let you be fooled by his age, he is dangerous”

“This is not a request, Lieutenant. My husband is not here, but I am” Arianna said in a firm voice and she didn't like doing so. Despite holding a royal status through her whole life – once as princess and now as queen – she never liked to give orders to those around her. She would rather ask her subjects for something than give an order and most of them appreciated it very much, the disapproval came more from other queens or princesses who wrinkled their powdered noses at her odd behaviour when she was not looking. But sometimes it was necessary, and she was ready to use her royal status in its entirety if it was for the right reason. Today was one of these “this is an order. You can feel free to chain him to the wall if you think a fourteen-year-old can sneak past you and run away” she added.

“You pity him” the lieutenant raised his eyebrow surprised and it was almost the same question Frederic had asked her just yesterday and it made her angry and tired at the same time. Was it really so incomprehensible that she would sympathize with a child who had lost so much in such a terrible way? Was it really so unusual to want to help someone who needed that help so badly? The world had gotten tougher in the past few years and the people with it.

“Yes, Lieutenant, I pity a child who has made a terrible mistake without really understanding what he's doing” she sight tiredly “do what I told you to” with these words she turned away and went back into the mill without waiting for an answer from the man, for she did not want to argue with him, did not want to see the look in his eyes men sometimes get when a woman acts illogical or emotional it their eyes just because she is showing human feelings. As if she didn't know what she was doing just because she was a woman.

Frederic did so sometimes too, when she was persuading him to let a child who was caught pickpocketing go, so this child could have a future, a chance to do better instead of rotting away in the dungeons for one tiny, little mistake. But he always gave in, probably because deep down he thought the same, but was too proud to admit it and instead had to hide behind his wife's sympathy like behind a shield. She knew, of course, that Varian's crimes were far more serious than simple pickpocketing, and yet she thought that at least he deserved to be able to sleep soundly at night.

When she returned to the lab, the maids had already prepared breakfast. The scent of fresh buns rose from the table, which was the only one not filled with pistons, and the queen sat down. Maybe it was still mot a very good idea to eat in a room where the air was filled with all kinds of chemicals, but this way they will waste a lot less time. Ruddiger ran to her, looked up at her expectantly and she put a little plate of milk in front of his nose again. The two guards also each had a bun in their hands and were talking to Sofia, who was standing with them holding a basket in her hands. Arianna called for Varian and the boy reluctantly left his work, which he was so absorbed in, and sat with her without protesting.

“I ordered the lieutenant to let you be alone for the night”, she informed him as she smeared butter on her bun and he stuffed a bun into his mouth almost too hastily, as if he were afraid of what he would reply to her. No conversation again, she thought bitterly, but no, she wouldn't let that get her down “so, how can I help you with your work today?” she clapped her hands, joyful and full of energy.

“I don’t need your help” he shallowed the bun hardly.

“Probably” she shrugged “but it wouldn't hurt. Varian, I understand that you don't want to be in my presence, but I would prefer if I could do something to save my people”

“I don’t need your help” he repeated, this time more firmly, almost hostile, as if he would be giving up something if he were to accept her help. Something important, something valuable, a spark of resistance he managed to maintain against all of them and maybe he really wasn’t ready to accept her help, to let her into a world that belonged to him alone and that she would destroy with her very presence. A part of himself that had not yet given up, that had not yet surrendered to the despair that slumbered in his heart like a wild, malicious animal, that he wanted to preserve at all costs, that he didn’t want to share with a stranger, an enemy. Arianna sighed deeply and sorrowfully and maybe she should give in and let him keep this last resistance, but she knew that she couldn't, not now and not here, because she didn't want to sit around doing nothing anymore.

“They are my people and I want to help, Varian”, she said softly and he didn’t reply – no approval but no further protests as well, which probably burned on his tongue like hot coals, but never escaped his lips and Arianna registered it as a small victory. 

They ate in silence and the boy left the table almost in a hurry, but when she approached him and asked again what she could do to help, he let her. He explained to her in an almost monotonous voice, as if he would not allow himself to show feelings towards her, what he was doing and what she could help with. They made a better team than Arianna expected, and they slipped into a routine pretty quickly. They mixed things together, struck words off the board that were getting less and less, which planted a small, timid spark of hope in Arianna's heart. Varian was a good teacher, he still didn't look the queen in the face, his gaze still flitted wildly across the room just to avoid landing on her, but he talked to her and explained the things that were happening in the pistons and Arianna understood it faster than she expected to.

When the woman started to study alchemy after the battle of Old Corona, she had not yet known how exciting this field actually was. The knowledge she had acquired in the last few months had grabbed her interest like a pair of pliers would do a hot piece of metal and yet she had never been able to find that level of enthusiasm in herself as today. 

Varian was pedantic in his explanations, illuminating every little process that was going on in the little flask in front of her and it was amazing how much was actually going on in this tiny glass jar without people being able to see it. He sounded almost enthusiastic when he told her all of this, as if she were the first person who was genuinely interested in his work, who wanted to know the goings-on behind the reactions. Maybe it was really the case. Rapunzel had told her that most people used to think he was a wizard because they had never bothered to understand what he was actually doing. 

In a way it was magic that was going on before her eyes, but it was a different kind of magic than Rapunzel's magic hair or Gothel's immortality or all the other magical objects her daughter had encountered. This magic had an explanation, a reason for its incredibility, and Arianna became infected with the boy's enthusiasm as they handled the chemicals together.

It was late in the evening when they finally made progress in their research. At first, Arianna hadn't even noticed, the reaction that brought a positive result with it. Varian was frozen in motion, staring wide-eyed into the flask, following the reddish smoke rising from it with his eyes, then he pressed it into her hands and ran over to the board, tripping over the chain around his ankle, which the queen had almost forgotten and circled the word 'quartz'.

“Quartz” he turned to her, a mute triumph in his eyes and this time he even looked her in the face “it is quartz, he used quartz as the starting material”

“Does this mean you now know how we can dissolve the crystal?” the queen asked hopefully and it was as if this sentence alone had painfully driven this triumph out of him and he shook his head in disappointment.

“No” he said softly and stepped back to the table, his eyes darting from her again. That little moment of joy the boy had allowed himself to have was gone and Arianna regretted even asking “we still have to find out what he used as an amplifier”

“But we are still one step further” smiled the queen gently and put a hand on his shoulder. She hoped this gesture would cheer him up, that he would accept it, that it would help him. But Varian winced at her touch and took a hasty step back from her, as if she had burned him. She lowered her hand, disappointment heavy in her heart, but not about the fact that they didn't have the solution yet, because no, of course she wouldn't be disappointed because of that, no, it was because he pushed her away again, although she thought that she not only took a step further today in destroying the crystal but in so much more.

The rest of the evening they worked in silence, the light-heartedness of the last few hours had evaporated like fleeting steam over a cup of hot tea and Arianna was almost glad when it was time to go to bed. She wished the boy good night without receiving an answer from him. She met Lieutenant Kai on the way to her improvised chambers.

“Lieutenant” she nodded curtly at him, the verbal argument that they had this morning still heavy in her heart “I would like to remind you of my order”

“If you allow, Your Majesty” said the man in a firm, sure voice “I think you are making a mistake” then he left and Arianna couldn't help but think that he might be right. Maybe she was really blinded by her compassion. Maybe Varian would really be gone tomorrow, and they will lose their only chance to save their kingdom. But she swallowed these doubts down her throat, choking them with her hope, her belief in the good in people that she had retained over the years, even when the world had looked so much darker than it should be. Belief in the boy her daughter once called a friend.

When she walked into the lab the next morning, she was almost relieved to see Varian there, hunched over the table, Ruddiger curled up in a corner. Of course he was still there. How should he even get past the guards who patrolled the mill like watch dogs? And yet she wanted to believe that that wasn't the only reason for him to stay, that he actually wanted to help them. That he cared more about Corona and the people living there then he claimed to do.

“Good morning, Varian” she greeted him with a gentle smile and also nodded to the two guards on duty, today Gregor and Finn.

“Good morning, Your Majesty” he replied and today his greeting sounded a bit more honest, not quite like it was out of sheer politeness. But he still wasn't looking her in the face, his eyes fixed somewhere on the wall behind her. He looked better than yesterday, the shadows under his eyes were no longer quite so dark, nor so deep, he still looked tired and she didn't think that only one night could change that, but he didn’t looks like he'll fall over at any moment.

“How can I help?” she joined him at the table and this time he did not contradict her, did not try to shoo her away as he had done yesterday and they devoted themselves to the work in front of them, the task, the problem, that had to be solved. Arianna liked the rhythm they put on, liked the work, even if she just followed his instructions like a schoolgirl. The day flew by, the sun in the sky changed its place with the moon once agai and Arianna wanted to leave it for today, but then the lieutenant and Darius – a guard who did not go on this journey with them – stepped up to them.

“Your Majesty” Darius said with a nervous glance at Varian “my squad fond Agamon’s hiding place” he dug out a tattered notebook “we found this there” she took it and opened it. The yellowed pages were filled with formulas, with drawings, with terms she couldn't understand.

“May I?” Varian said softly and she handed him the notebook. He opened it, flipped through the pages, then slammed it shut and looked up at her, eyes wide in what looked like shock but had a strange hope in it that had crept in like an intruder “I know how to neutralize the crystal” he said tonelessly.


	7. Chapter 7

There was this tiny, little moment after waking up when Varian couldn't remember where he was. In which the boy forgot what had happened to him and what had been done to him, what he had done to others in his anger. In this moment everything was fine, his father was alive, he was at home and his friends had not maliciously betrayed him. It was the only moment he felt good, his only consolation in the long months since that fateful blizzard. But this moment was brief, fleeting like a breeze of wind on a clear summer day. When it was gone, everything fell on him mercilessly, the despair, the fear, the anger. It was as if this avalanche would tear him from his feet and he would fall again and again into the depths his sharp mind held ready for him. 

As if he was choking on that anger, but in the past few days it had not just been anger or desperation. Ever since he'd agreed to that bargain with the king, ever since the queen spoke and worked with him, a tiny whiff of guilt - growing and growing by the second - had crept into this wild cocktail of emotions. It was the third day, the boy thought bitterly as he pulled his bare blanket over his head, not ready to go back up into the lab and see the woman to whom he had done terrible things and who was still nice to him.

His room, if you could call it a room, was on the level just below the lab. In the first night the guards hadn't bothered too much with his accommodations, they just threw him a straw mattress in a corner and he had his back to the wall and watched them all night because he didn't trust them, not to murder him in his sleep. Ruddiger had tried to snuggle up to his stomach as usual, but the boy had hastily pushed the raccoon behind his back so he could shield him from the scowls of the men who stood around him, their hands always on their swords. He knew they hated him, that most, if not all, of them had taken part in the battle of Old Corona. 

Most of them probably wondered why he was still alive and why he was not hanged the same day as it should happen with a dangerous traitor like him. He himself asked this question sometimes too and didn't know what answer he wanted to hear. It was no wonder he had not been able to sleep. It was probably even better that way, if he wasn't asleep, he couldn't dream, and if he wasn't dreaming, they couldn't find out what plagued him like an evil spirit at night.

After the first night they had set up huge wooden planks around his straw mattress, with obvious reluctance, thus shielding his sleeping place from them. The resulting room wasn't that big, even smaller than his cell in the dungeons, but at least he was alone and he had to worry less about them deciding to murder him at night and accidentally catch Ruddiger in the process. They had put a chain with handcuffes on a large bolt next to the mattress and chained him for the night. As if he could escape here, there was not even a window, the only way was through the spiral staircase they were guarding. 

He might be desperate, but not stupid enough to attempt such an escape. Besides...besides, he didn't want to flee while the crystal was still there, because he didn't want people to die. No, he will not try to until it's all over, as he had originally intended. It would happen on the way back to the castle, he already had everything for it. 

He had managed to hide a flask in his boot when he had knocked the others, apparently accidentally, over. Then he had managed to steal some ammonium chloride and potassium chlorate and finally powdered sugar, the queen liked to sprinkle on her cupcakes, and ready was the smoke bomb, that was now hidden in his boot reminding him with its light pressure that he had options. When he was ready, all he had to do was break the plunger and he would have the perfect distraction to escape. Yes, that is exactly what he would do and then he would be gone and never see these people again.

The flask in his boot brought a strange kind of security with it, because with it Varian no longer had to rely on these people to keep their word, he could take it into his own hands. A smoke bomb was completely harmless, he would be gone, and no one would be hurt, it would be that simple. Then he would never have to see the queen again, nor must endure her completely inappropriate kindness. He wouldn't have to work with her anymore and he would never have to look her in the face again. It was better this way, for all of them. He just had to wait a little longer, then he would be free. With Agamon's notes, he was pretty sure he would be able to neutralize the crystal today. He would have managed to do it yesterday, but shortly after the arrival of the guard who had brought the notebook, the queen had sent him to bed as if he were a child.

The young alchemist hated to put his work on hold for the night, to stop in the middle of an experiment, just because the time said so. Before, when his father was still there, they had an agreement: as soon as the sun went down, whether his experiments were finished or not, Varian would go to bed. It was something Quirin had insisted on with iron determination, and it had annoyed Varian to no end to have to bow to it. Some days he'd even waited for his father to fall asleep and snuck down to his lab to pick up where he'd involuntarily left off. Now it gave the boy a heavy pang in the heart when the queen did the same thing as his father and he actually wanted to be angry with her, but he couldn't bring himself to do so. But now it was morning again and he could go back to his work that would bring him one step closer to what he wanted most: to save his father.

So, Varian threw back the covers and straightened, at least as the chains would allow him to. Ruddiger instantly jumped up his shoulder and cackled in dissatisfaction about the boy waking him up like that.

“Good morning, Ruddiger” he said softly and the corners of his mouth wandered upwards as if by itself in the only smile he had allowed himself to have since that fateful day, a smile at his only remaining friend. The raccoon rubbed his head briefly on his cheek in response and the boy wanted to pet his head, but he couldn't do it with the chains around his wrists, which denied him even this tiny freedom.

“Hey, I'm awake!” he called as loudly as he could. Then he heard steps on the other side, the wooden plank was pushed aside, and Jonas peeked behind it. Jonas was one of the guards, who was not particularly nice to him either, but did not follow every step he took with undisguised hostility. The man stepped up to him and Varian held out his wrists. It was an almost satisfying sound as the cuffs popped open and the guard set them on the floor.

“Take off your gloves” the man ordered curtly, and Varian slipped them off. He was grateful about being allowed to keep them on for the night, the fabric made the handcuffs bite less painfully into his wrists and the skin actually had a chance to heal. Jonas carefully rolled the gauze up from his wrists, looked at the wounds, which were now nothing more than a reddish shadow, turned Varian's hands to all sides and finally spoke when he was apparently satisfied with the result “You don’t need these anymore” the man decided and Varian, relieved, put the gloves back on “Now come” the man turned around and Varian followed him. There was still a lot to do today and the boy couldn't help but feel the tiny spark of anticipation as he thought about his work.

The queen was not there when they entered the lab. Jonas nodded to Henrik, who would probably be on duty with him today, and closed the shackle around Varian's ankle as usual. The boy walked over to his work surface immediately, already feeling Ruddiger jumping off his shoulder and curling up under the table by his feet. Actually, Varian didn't like it when the raccoon was in the lab, the animal was naturally curious and often sniffed chemicals, some of which were not harmless at all, and Varian used to chase him out of his lab when he was working, which was the case most of the time, but now he just couldn't bring himself to chase away the only friendly face, the only non-hostile being that he could trust. So, he limited himself to keeping the animal off the tables as best he could.

The morning flew by, as if time was running faster than it was physically possible but at the same time much slower than it should. For the moment, the boy could forget where he was, that he was surrounded by enemies, that he hated them all and the world around him. It was like he was back in his own lab, in his house in Old Corona, when the world was still fine, and he could lose himself in this feeling like in the pages of an exciting book. Then it happened. At first, he hadn't realized what actually happened, his brain skipped briefly, as if the synapses were no longer doing what they should. 

He dripped a small drop of his last formula - he had mixed it together with the help of Agamon's notebook - over the smooth surface of the sample and he had expected to get a negative result, just like the previous times. He was already turning to mix up a new substance that was different, but then he saw it. 

The substance ate its way through the crystal sample Varian conducted his tests on, like hot water through frosty ice, grooving the clear surface, breaking through it, and disintegrating when it hit the leaf inside of it. He drew a little more of the liquid into the pipette, let it escape over the crystal and held his breath as the substance again dissolved the crystal as if it were nothing. He had made it, he thought dully with shock, it had worked, they could now save the people in the houses. He grabbed the notebook the queen had given him the first day and hastily wrote the formula into it, the writing almost illegible in his speed, but it was enough if he was able to read it. A touch of euphoria seized him like a hurricane consisting of happiness and pride, until he could no longer feel anything else.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the queen come up the spiral staircase and walk over to him.

“Good morning, Varian” she greeted, and he spun around to her, the solution and the notebook still in his hands, his mouth twisted in a smile that he hadn't allowed himself for months. Ruddiger stuck his head out from under the table and put a paw on his foot, as if that would calm him down.

“I did it” he breathed and reached for the crystal, which now had grooves in its surface that stretched deep down to the leaf inside of it and exposed a tiny part of it. The queen stared at the crystal in his hands for a few moments, as if she needed this time to apprehend his words, then her face lit up with joy, as Rapunzel’s had often done, but this time even the reminder of the princess could not tarnish the boy's mood. 

The woman picked up the crystal, turned it a few times in her fingers, looked at it in the light. Then she pulled Varian into a tight hug, her arms wrapped around his shoulders and he suddenly realized how long it had been since he had actually experienced human closeness. He wanted to push her away, take a step back from her, snap up the wall he had built around himself to protect himself from the cruel world he lived in, but he didn't. He almost froze, not able to move until she herself stepped away from him again, tentatively, a gentle smile on his face.

“Thank you, Varian” she spoke softly “How will we proceed now?”

“We…” the boy finally stepped back from her and bumped his back against the table, the flasks and pistons on it clinked dangerously “it will take too much time to uncover the whole village, getting air into the houses should be our top priority, the people only have two days left” he turned and frantically began to gather the necessary ingredients.

“How do we do that?” the queen stepped beside him and peeked curiously over his shoulder. He pondered for a moment, it was easier to cope with her presence if he thought, pulling his mind away from her into the deepest corners of his mind, where it was protected from her kind words.

“The chimneys” he spoke eventually “the crystal must have bridged the openings in the chimneys. Since it has no solid base, it will be the thinnest there and thus the easiest way to get air into the houses. The village has sixteen houses, based on the speed at which the mixture eats its way through the crystal, we need about 200 millilitres for each house, a total of 3200 millilitres”

“What about the people on the streets?” the queen asked.

“The mixture didn't damage the leaf so I don't think it would harm organic tissue” Varian rubbed his chin thoughtfully “but we have to be careful when we apply it, we will probably need something that distributes the substance evenly over the people, it would generally be better if we had something that can serve this purpose” he looked up at her nervously, because she would certainly not want to agree with the idea he had just now “I think I could build something that would spread the substance over the surface in the form of water dust, if you would let me” it was one thing to let him handle chemicals and something completely different, to let him build a machine, no matter how small. He had shown how dangerous his machines could be, after all. The queen looked at him for a long time, almost tired, then sighed deeply and exhausted.

“All right” she finally nodded, and Varian's heart skipped a beat hopefully “I am trusting you Varian, please don't disappoint that trust” and it gave him a strange pang in his heart that he didn't quite know where to place. Was he happy to be able to build something or was he happy about her trust? Was he wanting not to disappoint the woman who was his enemy, a fact that he had to recall more and more than he wanted to? He didn't know and this uncertainty bothered him more than he expected to. He had to get out of here, he thought bitterly, he had to go down with his plan and run away, away from this woman and away from this guilt that crept into his heart and that he didn't want there. The smoke bomb in his boot was almost on fire, reminding him of who he was and what he was willing to do to achieve his goals. He nodded curtly and continued his work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we go with Varian‘s POV again. I admit, I like writing from Ariannas POV, but I missed our boy a little :P The next chapter is going to be intense...


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, today it got a little bit late, sorry about that. I din‘t manage to post the chapter in the morning, like I always did.
> 
> Further, I would like to make a little warning befor the beginging. It is getting a little bit graphic here, I don‘t think it‘s too bad, but if some of you are a little bit sensitive - it is not really gory, but it containce blood and some other things - then you should skip the 19th paragraph (that means you count the speech as well). It‘s not very much, but I don‘t want to trigger anyone. Do I have to put a warning for this? I‘m not very familiar with the rules here.

It was noon when they finally left the mill and walked down the hill to the dead-silent village. The entire squad accompanied Varian and the queen today, each of them holding two vials of Varian's solution with a special device attached to it that would dispense the liquid in form of fine water dust. One vial was enough for a house and Varian had another in his chained hands, he will use it on a crystallized humen if it worked on the chimneys - and it would undoubtedly do so. It had to be applied far more carefully than those on the houses and he didn't trust the rough guards to be cautious enough for it. 

When they arrived in the village, they gathered at one of the houses that would run out of air the fastest. Varian had worked out exactly which house had to come first, which people had the least time left in their crystal prisons that could so easily become their coffins. Finn climbed up onto the roof with the help of a rope and got ready to use the solution. The boy held his breath, hoping that he hadn’t made a mistake, that could easily cost these people their lives and for a moment he couldn’t help but think about what they would do with him if he happened to be wrong. A tiny shadow of fear crept into the deepest corners of his heart, nested there and he followed every movement of the man, it appeared be in slow motion to him. 

The queen next to him put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and he took a step away from her to be out of her reach. Then, after long seconds that seemed like an eternity to the young alchemist, Finn waved to them from above and showed a thumbs up. Varian let out a sigh of relief at the gesture. It worked; he was right. The guard climbed down the roof and joined them again.

“The stuff ate its way through this cursed thing very quickly, Your Majesty” reported the man, casting a strange look at Varian, which no longer carried as much hostility in it as it had just a few moments ago. Almost respectful and...grateful. The boy was not used to having his work respected, for most of his village had thought him a stupid dreamer who should do normal work, as they all did, and not play around with magic they thought his research to be.

“Is it enough for the moment?” the queen asked Varian.

“Yes, they will have enough air to survive, with enough ropes we can try to bring them out through the chimneys” the boy nodded in response “if that doesn't work, we can at least get some food or water to them. Did you hear their voices?” he asked Finn.

“Yes, I called down to them and they answered” the man nodded “they are all alive and they have enough to eat for the next few days”

“Then we should go on with the rest” smiled the queen and Varian allowed himself to look her in the face for one moment. She looked happy, hopeful, and the boy couldn't help but smile as well. 

In the past, his priority had always been to help people, it worked less often than it didn't and every failure had bothered him a lot more than he wanted it to. But he had never saved anyone's life with his inventions, never until today. It was a strange feeling to know that one's own actions ensured that someone else was still alive, a strange kind of pride he had never experienced and which bloomed in his heart like a beautiful flower, beautifying the corners of his battered soul with its mere presence like a weathered garden. He liked that feeling, the boy decided, he liked it and he was glad he had experienced it and it gave him hope, because if he could neutralize this strange substance, he could also drive away the amber that held his father prisoner. He could save him if he got it right this time and he would, no matter what.

The guards spread around the houses, climbed up on the roofs and splashed Varian's solution over the crystals blocking the chimneys, listening to what the people inside had to say. In the sixteen houses only three people died, in one of them one old couple whose old hearts could not withstand the tension and pressure in the stuffy air and in another a newborn baby whose weak lungs could not cope with the rise of carbon dioxide in the air. Yet despite these tragic deaths that hurt and planted doubts in Varian's heart, because perhaps these people would not have died if he had only been a little bit faster, it was a complete success. The people may still be stuck in their houses, but they could breathe again, their time was no longer limited by the air that had built up in their houses.

“Shall we now try to free one of the people on the streets, dear?” asked the queen and Varian nodded, not being sure whether he was ready, for these people, like his father, were trapped in a substance, frozen in their lives.

“I will need my hands” he replied curtly and the woman turned to the lieutenant, who was standing next to her with a grim face, as if it was not sitting well with him that Varian was the one who had saved these people.

“Lieutenant, please take his chains off” said the queen in a firm voice and Varian had noticed it before, the silent tension that reigned between the two of them, as if they had had an argument he hadn't seen. The man sighed deeply, but despite his apparent reluctance, he loosened the handcuffs on Varian's wrists. 

It was the first time he was outside without chains; the other guards were all spread out in the village, only the lieutenant and the queen were still with him. If he set the smoke bomb up now, it might be distracting enough for him to escape into the forest that enclosed the village on his right. He might still be a child, but he was fast, and he could hide well because of his size, he might even be able to do it. 

They didn't need him for the rest, his notes were still in the mill and the queen had watched him work long enough to be able to make the solution herself. They didn’t need him anymore. He glanced at the queen, who was standing perfectly still and who had placed such trust in him, despite the things he had done to her personally. With a deep sigh, he went to one of the crystal statues and began to carefully apply the solution to its surface. He could still escape later, once all was over. Agamon could change his substance once he realized they had an antidote. He could escape later, they still needed him, and it was certainly not because he did not want to disappoint the queen with his escape.

The thin layer of crystal over the skin of the person inside, a middle-aged man with a close-cropped head and the clothes of a farmer who stared down at him from the depths of the crystal, as if he could look deep into the boy's soul and see things in him, that were not meant for anyone's eyes, broke slowly when the tiny droplets of solution hit it. It peeled off the surface like a crust and Varian gently wiped it aside before applying a new one. Even with the crystal around the man’s head being not particularly thick, it was a tedious process. 

The guards had finished their work on the houses and were gathering around him. He could feel their curious looks on his back and it gave him a short stab, because now he had lost his chance to escape. He wouldn't get very far if he actually decided to take a run now. It had been the right decision, he whispered resolutely against his doubts, it was the right thing to do, these people needed him, he couldn't just leave until he finished his job. So, he kept spraying the substance, applying it and wiping the thin crust aside until he got to the last layer.

“The last layer” he said softly, more to himself the anybody else, and continued, more carefully than the times before. The crystal made a small hiss and eventually exposed a part of the man's skin. For a moment joy flared up in the boy's heart, light, hopeful joy, and he brushed aside the last bits of the crystal, exposing the man's face. The skin was pale, bluish, unhealthy, as if the crystal had got under the man's skin, had puffed up and hardened there. The wide-open eyes now also looked puffy, rigid, devoid of any human emotion, dead. A disgusting stench of rot rose from the man, filling the air and driving the bile up Varian's throat as it made its way up his gullet. It took the boy a few seconds to realize that the man in front of him was dead, for several days maybe, since the crystal had locked him in through the pores under his skin. 

He could hear how some of the guards inhaled sharply, how the queen breathed loudly and frantically, could see out of the corner of his eye how she clapped her hands over her mouth in shock. Varian wanted to turn around so that he no longer had to see this terrible picture in front of him, but he couldn't, the man's staring eyes seemed to have captured him, drawn into an invisible, gruesome spell he could not escape. The sun shone down on the dead man's face, the eyeballs shimmered in their rays, swelled a little and finally exploded in a rain of blood and ice-blue crystals that rained down on him, covered him and he finally managed to take a tentative step backwards. 

He tripped over a crystallized root and fell without actually realizing it, for the empty eye sockets were even worse than the staring eyes and even the putrid stench. It was as if they were bottomless abysses into which he would fall if he moved a millimetre with the boy standing on the edge. His head was buzzing as if he had run for a long time, his breathing was heavy and painful in his throat, and he felt sick. The man in front of him was dead.

Somebody suddenly put a cloak over the gruesome picture, the lieutenant, he was the only one with a cloak. Someone crouched down in front of him, said something without him being able to hear it between all the sounds that rang in his ears. The person in front of him was nothing more than a purple-colored blotch with no face, with the best will in the world he couldn't think of who it might be. 

The man there was dead, the realization circled again and again in his maddened thoughts, he was dead, he had died and now he was no longer alive, would never be again. His life has ended, his time was up, his flesh was riddled with crystals that ate through his tendons like maggots, and he was dead. Varian has not seen a dead person until that day. He had read about what went on in a body when a person died, but he had never seen it, had never met death, even if he had often thought about it during the months of his imprisonment, had even wished for it on some particularly horrible days like a trusted friend, but he hadn't realized how terrible death actually was. 

From an once living, breathing, talking, thinking, feeling person was nothing left but an empty shell of flesh that rotted and decayed and no longer contained a soul in it. This person was dead and how stupid he could have been to think that death would bring him salvation, that he would welcome it because of all the suffering he had experienced. Death was ugly and dull and ruthless in its finality. It was completely indifferent to death what kind of person you had once been, good or bad, it did not matter, death took a saint as well as a sinner and nothing remained but flesh and bones.

He felt sick and pressed his gloved hand to his mouth. Someone put a gentle hand on his shoulder and suddenly he could see the face in front of him: the queen. The woman had crouched down in front of him, her eyes slightly red with the tears that swam in them. He had tried to kill her. He had tried to end her life in an incredibly cruel and brutal way, and not just hers. The soldiers, the princess, Cassandra, he almost killed them all in his anger and because of him they almost became those rigid sacks of flesh. Did he kill someone that day? He asked himself, and the bile collected corrosively on his tongue. Had he ended someone's life? It was almost like an avalanche falling over him, the realization that he could be a murderer. He had known perfectly well what he had done, or almost done. He was aware of the lines he had crossed in his anger, which at the time seemed so justified. But until today he hadn't really realized what it actually meant when someone died. What it meant when someone was brutally murdered.

That realization was the last straw, the last dam to be torn apart, and he managed to turn away from the queen before throwing up on the crystal-covered earth. His eyes burned from the pressure that developed in his head, his mouth and nostrils were single, fiery holes when his acidic gastric juice burned the skin there. Hot tears ran down his cheeks, down his nose and dripped onto his knees. He could feel someone making soothing circles over his spine, sending small pressure waves through his trembling body. He felt something warm nestled against his side, how tiny claws stabbed through the fabric of his pants. 

He didn't know how long he sat like that, throwing his soul out of his body, but slowly it stopped, slowly his stomach had nothing left to choke out. It left him empty, dull, the world still spinning around him like a carousel at a fair, but it was neither exciting nor fun. After a while someone gently pulled him to his feet and led him away from the village. His feet moved as if by themselves, without really knowing where they were taking him. His thoughts had dulled until there was only room left for one of them: he had tried to kill people. It was as if his head had no more room for anything other than this single thought, as if his being revolved around this fact alone.

Varian didn't notice when they got back to the mill, he didn't notice a guard carrying him up the spiral staircase into the makeshift lab and placing him on a chair, as Ruddiger jumped on his lap and chittered worriedly at him. How the queen instructed the maids to fetch her water, how the woman pulled up a chair and wiped his face with a wet cloth. How the guards gathered around him indecisively, the looks no longer quite so hostile. How the queen pulled him into her arms and rested his head on her shoulder. He tried to kill people.

It was late in the evening when Varian came back from his apathy. His head was still resting on the queen's shoulder, who was gently stroking his hair and he had no strength to push her away, or to move away from her himself. He wanted to apologize to her right now for all the horrible things he'd done to her, but the words got stuck in his throat. Did he even have a right to ask her forgiveness? He almost killed her.

“Did someone…” he started and broke off again when his breath stung his throat, his voice sounded hollow, almost dead, but he had to ask this question, would not stand one moment without the answer “…did someone die in Old Corona back then?”

“No” the queen shook her head. Relief flooded his mind, as if he were dying of thirst and someone had handed him a glass of water. At least he hadn't killed anyone. He straightened up, Ruddiger chittered happily and relieved in his lap.

“He will do it again, right?” the boy asked softly “in two days from now will he…” he broke off with a tired voice.

“There is nothing we can do about it” the queen shook her head again “Varian, it's not your fault these people died, you couldn't do anything about it”

“The solution is too slow to apply, even if we do it on the same day it will be too late for them” he continued hollowly.

“Maybe it won't come to that at all, we'll have guards patrolling all inhabited places in the kingdom, maybe he won't be able to do it again” said the queen with a faint, timid hope in her voice.

“I don't know if I'm right about that, but…” Varian took a deep breath “It could be that the crystals are taking time to attack tissues, so, if we could just be quick enough…”

“We could manage to save someone who got trapped in the crystal” she ended for him, hopefully.

“Yes, but for that we need a faster way to apply the solution. Depending on the number of people affected, the vials would not be fast enough. I could build a machine that would work just like the bottles, just bigger, so we could cover a larger area and maybe it would be enough if we did it fast enough” he looked up at her timidly. She would not agree, he had almost killed her with his machines, almost killed others with the things he had build. Even if she had allowed him to buikd the disposers, she had no reason to trust him with something bigger. She looked into his face for a few moments, her eyes unfathomable, her lips pressed tightly together with determination, then her eyebrows knitted together as if she had made a silent decision.

“Then we have a machine to build” she smiled softly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that was the eighth chapter and this time I even have something to say again.
> 
> First of all, I don't think that in the actual show Varian really realized what it means when someone dies. I think so because it seemed so easy for him to try to kill someone. He was fourteen, at fourteen you just don't understand things like that very well and he has never met death. Here he actually did, it is a very important step in realizing what he almost did and he needed it. That and the trust that Arianna had placed in him forms an important foundation that will lead to his redemption.


	9. Chapter 9

Arianna wasn't sure if it was a good idea to actually let Varian work on a machine. Frederic would certainly not approve, would disagree with it, perhaps even reprimand her for her naive trust. But she couldn't help but allow it seeing his desperate look, knowing about the horror he just experienced. Maybe it was stupid, maybe it would go terribly wrong, maybe she made an aweful mistake that she would regret later on. But maybe not. Perhaps this thing the boy was working on with rock-hard determination in his eyes would save her subjects. 

The dead man in the village had hit the boy hard. He did hit Arianna hard as well, but she was an experienced adventurer who had already seen battles, who had seen people die. It was different with the man in the village. Death was quick on the battlefield, someone was hit and fell and was dead, but what she saw today was something entirely different. The bloated skin, the eyes, it wasn't normal, and this image would probably haunt her for a long time in her dreams. And Varian, Varian probably hadn't seen a body until yesterday, had never faced anything so terrible.

There was of course the lifeless figure of his father stuck in an amber crystal, but they didn't know if Quirin was really dead. He seemed frozen, no blood, no rotten skin. He could still be alive beneath this strange substance that held him prisoner and she really hoped it to be so, that he would someday come free again. She hoped so for him and she hoped so for Varian.

The picture they'd had faced yesterday had shaken the boy deeply, even more than Arianna had expected. He had become quiet, even quieter than he already was, but at the same time he no longer pushed her away as he had before, he did not seek her presence, no, but he did not turn away from her either. It was as if this picture had driven all the fighting spirit out of him, his anger, his despair, everything. She could see that Ruddiger noticed it as well. The raccoon followed his human with an almost pitying look, as if he wanted to drag him away from this horror by force, knowing that he couldn't.

After the incident in the village, Lieutenant Kai had sent Henrik and Gregor to report to the king about their success, how they found a solution for the horror that Agamon had brought to their gates. To get food for the people who were still stuck in their homes. To bring ropes and tools with which they could try to pull them out of the houses through the now exposed chimneys and bring them to a safe place - well, they probably wouldn't need to do so, when the device was finished they could just get rid of the crystal, but she didn't want to take any chances. 

Arianna knew that Frederic would probably come here himself and she didn't know if she should be happy to see him. On the one hand, of course, she missed her husband, since their marriage they had rarely been apart, at least not for a long period of time, but on the other hand, she was worried about what would happen to Varian. He wouldn't bear to be put back in the dungeons again, not now, and even if Arianna didn't want to believe that her husband would break his promise, she couldn't help worrying about it. She wouldn't let Frederic break his promise, now even more so than before their little trip. She could deal with Frederic, the queen decided, he might be stubborn, but she knew his stubbornness and could handle it, she had always done so. But well, now they had a machine to build and she had no idea how it worked, she thought with a wry smile.

Varian had spent the previous evening in the lab, making blueprints for the machine, calculating things, and Arianna was even less able to help him now than with his alchemy. It was almost like magic and the queen could now understand why people had thought him a wizard. The things he did were, after all, small miracles that seemed to follow a logic that only people like him could understand. She hadn't tried to ask him how it worked, she might do it later, when the image of the dead man was no longer so present in his mind. Then she would have him explaine it, maybe even persuade Frederic to use this machine for the kingdom. Now his blueprints were finished, created in only one evening, now they could start building the actual device.

Varian had decided to put the machine together outside of the mill. However, he manufactured the required parts in the lab. He made the guards collect rectangular stones in the area and bring them back to him - and the men followed this request without protest, for even if their lieutenant's opinion on the boy had not changed, theirs had. It was as if yesterday's victory, because it had been one, even with the terrible incident with the corpse, had changed their minds about Varian. It was no wonder, his substance had saved the people in the houses and despite the terrible things the boy had done in his anger, it was undeniable: he had saved these people. So, the men helped him as best they could. 

They brought the rocks and the boy built an improvised forge, inside he put hot coals to heat up the metal. With the antidote they managed to break into the village forge and even if the crystal made it unusable, they could bring an anvil and tools out of it. The resulting forge might not last long, but for the moment it would be enough, and they would be done before it collapsed.

Of course, Varian himself was not strong enough to make the necessary parts without the special tools he had used to build his automatons with, but under his guidance, Jonas and Finn formed the metal into the right pieces, hit it with a hammer until the boy was satisfied with the result. Lieutenant Kai stood to one side and watched them work with an iron face, as if he believed that thing would blow up in their faces if he didn't scowl dark enough and it was almost childish, thought the queen who was standing next to him, because Varian had said it could be dangerous to get too close.

“I still believe you are making a mistake by allowing him to do this” the man huffed, visibly dissatisfied with the sudden trust and respect his men showed to the boy. Arianna made no reply, was silent and watched. She didn't want to argue with him, not now and not here, and certainly not in front of Varian.

A while passed, the final blow of the hammer fell and Varian inspected the last piece of metal, bit his lower lip as if wondering if it was good enough.

“Yes, this will do it” he nodded eventually, his voice still as hollow as yesterday, as if he were still standing in front of the battered corpse. Jonas grinned and ruffled his hair good-naturedly, tousled it even more than it already was. Ruddiger angrily chittered up at him causing the man to laugh. It was as if yesterday had changed their entire dynamic, hostility and suspicion suddenly turned into camaraderie and respect, and Varian looked as helpless as a little child who had been told that the world was different from what he had thought before. Arianna couldn't help but smile at that little spark of joy and hope inside of her, dragging it to the surface to overshadow her fears like the bright light of the sun the gloom in cold corners of the room.

“Then we should carry it downstairs” Finn said throwing some of the metal plates over his shoulder as if they were bags of potatoes.

“Careful!” Varian exclaimed hastily “if there is a dent it could blow up!” the boy ran after him and tripped over the chain that was still around his ankle.

“Ha, blow up” Jonas laughed nudging Finn with his elbow who almost dropped the metal plates.

“It can really blow up, I have calculated everything very precisely and if something is even a little different…” Varian straightened up again “There will be a lot of pressure in there to turn the substance into water dust and if the exterior facade is not the right size and shape it will not be able to cope with the pressure and if something does not cope with pressure it will explode. According to my calculations we have an error rate of around 2%”

“Is that much?” Jonas raised an eyebrow.

“The maximum is 100%” the boy rubbed his face in resignation “so yes, 2% is very little. Just be more careful with it” he ended almost tired. Had he had this conversation with others in the past? Maybe with people from his village? Rapunzel had told her that at their first meeting, when she had snuck out to find out more about her suddenly grown magical hair, one of his machines exploded and she had sounded way too enthusiastic about it for Arianna's taste. Finn gave the boy an undefined, perhaps even slightly nervous, look and handed some of the plates to Jonas, who carefully took them. Together they brought the plates down, came back up, and fetched more that Varian had prepared for them.

“I hope you are not planning on making this thing explode” said Lieutenant Kai coldly as his men carried the last plates downstairs. The boy didn’t reply, just grabbed his tools without a word and went to the spiral staircase.

“I have to go downstairs to put the machine together” he said softly and pointed with his chin at his chained foot. The man's eyebrows furrowed but he still went over to him and released the cuff so the boy could go downstairs. 

“You are too hard on him” the queen said. 

“You are too soft” the man replied. Arianna ignored him and followed Varian down the staircase. Maybe he was right, maybe she was really too soft, but maybe this gentleness was what the boy needed now. Only time would tell, and she hoped she would be the one who was right.

When Arianna got downstairs, the lieutenant hot on her heels, Varian was already assembling the metal plates. He had made some kind of mask out of a small metal plate that was not unlike the one the queen had seen on him on that terrible day in Old Corona. It sat rather unsteadily on his head, held only by a few straps and, even if Arianna had no idea what it was or what purpose it served, it didn't seem to make his work much safer. But at least it protected his face when he welded together the metal plates that were being held by Finn and Jonas, who stood nervously around him. The whole construction was on a cart and would probably be round as she could make out. Inside she could already see the first gears and a huge cauldron, which would probably be filled with the solution at a later time.

“Why is it sitting on a cart?” she asked curiously as she walked over to them and Varian almost dropped the weld-thing – she wasn’t really sure, what it was or even how to call it. The fire scorched the grass next to his foot almost catching it. He was even more nervous around her than he was the rest of the days, she thought, she would deal with it later. The boy straightened up and flipped the mask up, looked up indecisively, although in her direction but without looking into her face.

“This will make it easier to move it to another point later on” he explained after a few heartbeats of silence, as if he had to work out the answer. Then he put the mask back down again, brought the metal up between them like a barrier, picked up his device and turned back to the unfinished machine. As if he no longer knew how to talk to her. The queen sighed deeply and let him. There would be time to deal with their problems later.

The hours passed painfully slowly, as if every second were a single little eternity that dragged on and seemed to find no end. Jonas had carried Arianna a chair down from the lab and she sat gratefully. Ruddiger had hopped on her lap at some point, curled up and dozed off. At least one of them was glad about her presence. She watched the work in front of her, work she would be happy to help with. But nobody needed her there, Jonas and Finn were enough, she herself would only be in the way, she knew that and yet she would have loved to be a part of this little miracle that was being created before her. She might be a queen, but she liked to work with her hands.

As a girl she had once had a phase in which she liked to carve animals out of wood, she had stolen a dagger from her father, and sat with her sister Willow on the windowsill and had carved. They had let their legs dangle from it and their nurses would reprimand them if they caught them doing so. It had been a good time, she thought with a smile. Sometimes, when she was in a nostalgic mood, she still carved figures even today, she should give Rapunzel one when she came back.

The sun was slowly setting towards the horizon when Varian put the tool aside and looked critically at the machine in front of him, which now looked like a huge kettle with an elongated opening at the top to which two hoses were connected.

“Is it done?” Arianna approached him curiously. Ruddiger jumped off her lap when she got up and ran over to his human, peering up at the metal thing just like the queen did “can we start it now?” Varian paused for a moment before answering, as if he had to figure out the words before they left his mouth.

“We should test it first” the boy decided “could you fetch a bucket of water, please?” he turned to Jonas and Finn, who were standing next to him sweaty from work, their faces filled with a strange pride, probably they were pleased to have helped with such an endeavour. Jonas nodded and ran up.

“Why water?” Arianna asked.

“Water is not dangerous” the boy shrugged “if everything goes as it should, then it will be like light rain”

“And if not?” Lieutenant Kai came up to them, his brow furrowed, his suspicious gaze fixed on the machine, as if he were afraid the thing would suddenly attack him like a wild animal.

“Then at least no chemical will have been in it” replied Varian, cautious and uncertain at the same time, as if he feared the same thing as the man before him, but could not quite bring himself to express this worry. Arianna put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and she saw that he wanted to back away from her, as he had always done before, but something was stopping him, forcing him to endure her care, even if he didn't want it. Maybe it was guilt, maybe it was tiredness, but no matter what it was, the woman decided to chalk it up as a victory, even if a small and uncertain one, but the boy didn't push her away anymore and that was the only thing that mattered.

“I am sure all will go well” Arianna smiled gently. Varian didn’t reply. A few moments later Jonas returned with the water and the boy showed him how to fill the machine.

“We should move the machine away from the mill in case something goes wrong” Varian said and Finn and Jonas grabbed the cart and began to pull it away from the mill. The vehicle jerked a little, the device on it swayed “careful” Varian cried out and wanted to run after them, but the lieutenant put a heavy hand on his shoulder. They exchanged strange looks and the boy sighed deeply and stopped “you have to be careful with it!” he called after the two guards and they slowed down “I'll have to be there to turn the machine on” he said to the lieutenant. The man frowned in dissatisfaction, then nodded and let go.

“If you run, I will shoot” he said coldly and pulled a crossbow from his belt. Varian followed the thing with his gaze, swallowed briefly, and finally nodded resignedly. Then he turned and walked to the cart and the two guards, trying hard to be slow.

“You will not shoot” Arianna said dryly when the boy was out of earshot “this is not a request; this is an order”

“You are to soft on him” said the man for the second time today, but he put the crossbow away. At least something.

Arianna could see from a distance how Varian went to the machine and pulled a lever on the side, then ran back to them with Finn and Jonas. Then it started to rain. At first the queen had actually thought that it was simple rain, a light thing that trickled down from the sky in the form of water dust, settling finely on her skin and hair like fresh morning dew. Then she saw Varian's face as he got to them, turned and looked over at the machine, an incredulous smile on his face, eyes wide and filled with the kind of wonder that only children can have. The queen hadn't expected that after everything that had happened to him, what he had done and experienced, he would still be able to carry that astonishment within himself.

“It worked” he laughed and turned to Arianna, this time looking her in the face, completely open, as if this little success had dragged the child out of him again, as if it had managed to bury the darkness in his heart and the queen couldn’t help herself and smile as well “we can get these people out of the houses now” it was amazing what such a small machine, created in less than a full day, created by a child, could do. She could think of a thousand ways in which it could be used for the benefit of others, even if Agamon was defeated and the crystals gone, it could be of great use, especially in agriculture. Droughts would no longer be a problem if they were able to conjure their own rain out of the air.

“Yes, we can” she smiled softly “good job, Varian” she praised and his smile brightened, as if the sun had risen in his heart and it was a complete success on so many levels.


	10. Chapter 10

The triumph tasted like sunlight and warm summer evenings and tinkling children's laughter that echoed in the ears and planted pure happiness in the people's hearts. Arianna still couldn't believe that they had made it, that they had found a solution, that they now had something to counter the danger in front of them, and that only after four short days. It was almost a miracle. They would be able to save her kingdom, avoid further sacrifices, everything will turn out well, this thought alone spurred the steps of the queen as she climbed the long stairs up the mill and she felt like walking on clouds. It was an incredibly wonderful feeling to be proved right, to have been the one to bring this idea to light, and even if she was only Varian's assistant in all of this, she had helped to save everyone. They would come out victorious, they would save everyone. It would be all right.

Once at the top in the lab, the boy immediately went to work mixing the solution together and Arianna joined him without a word and helped with the procedure, which she could now carry out in her sleep. They didn't talk, but they both smiled, Varian probably for the first time in months, and that little spark of light was more than the woman had hoped for. The boy set up a strange apparatus of tubes and flasks on the table and placed a bucket that Finn had brought him under one of the tubes.

“We can automate the process this way” explained the boy without Arianna having to ask and if she remembered correctly, it was the first time for him to address her on his own as if this success had given him the strength he needed to finally talk to her “we just have to wait”

“How much do we need?” she asked curiously.

“According to my calculations, about 60 liters should be sufficient, that would be...” he thought for a moment “…about three buckets. That should be enough to free the village”

“So little?” Arianna breathed surprised. The village wasn't particularly big and yet three buckets sounded like an incredibly small amount.

“Since the substance is brought into the form of water dust, it sounds less than it appears” Varian explained.

“And how long will it take?” the queen asked further, glancing into the bucket, the bottom of which was already covered by a fine, wet layer. Varian furrowed his eyebrows in thought as if calculating in his head the time it would take before answering:

“A bucket should be filled in about half an hour, so about an hour and a half, then we can fill the machine with it” only an hour and a half and they would have it behind them, at least with this village, because they did not know whether Agamon would do it to any other places as well.

In the beginning, it had dragged on almost painfully slowly, the hours and days each a tiny little eternity that seemed to find no end, but now, now everything went very quickly. By tonight it would be all over, over like a bad nightmare you awakened from with relief in your heart.

“it's almost unbelievable that it will soon be over” Varian said softly, uncertainly, almost sadly, as if this realization had stifled his triumph and the woman suddenly realized what had to be going on in his thoughts right now. He didn't believe that Frederic would keep his word, he thought he would soon return to the musty, cold dungeons and this little adventure would be nothing more than a fond memory. Arianna knew that she should do something about it, that she should talk to him, have a conversation that was so long overdue, and now they had time while they were waiting.

But she also knew that he wouldn't want to have this conversation, probably wouldn't believe her words, because why should he? Over the last few days, she had kept wondering what he was thinking when he looked at her, or rather was stubbornly not looking at her. What did he see her as? An enemy? Someone who almost fell victim to his bad decisions? An annoying thing standing between him and his goal? It was like most of the time he didn't know how to behave towards her, how to talk to her, how to avoid making a mistake in her presence that would cost him his only chance to save his father.

She had never spoken to anyone about her kidnapping, not even to Frederic, even if she trusted him completely, she still wasn’t able to express it to him, this fear that followed her like an evil spirit, this fear that she is now successful had fought down because she had to. That fear that had disappeared amid pistons and smoke and pity. Wasn't it ironic that she only felt ready to talk about it when it was nothing more than a bad memory, like it was years ago, not just three short months? Wasn't it even more ironic to talk to her former kidnapper about it? But she wanted him to hear it, understand it, and know that it was gone. It might not be the best time to talk about it, and yet it was no better than any other else. She wanted him to know it from her, for him to knew that she was no longer afraid of him and that she would help him even if her husband decided not to.

“Then we have time to talk” she said softly, for they had. Varian swallowed hard as the words left her mouth, looking as uncertain as a child who wasn't quite sure what to do.

“Talk?” he stuttered nervously and took a step back from her as if she were threatening him “what...what would you like to talk about? There is no... nothing to talk about”

“Yes, there is” she continued and went over to the improvised dining table that stood a little lost in the room “and now come, sit down” for a moment she thought he would refuse, push her away again, ignore her as he had done for the past few days, but no, he hesitantly stepped over to the table and sat down across from her. She could see the fear he had of this conversation, the tension in his body, which was so obvious that Ruddiger jumped on his lap and snuggled against his stomach as if he could calm his human this way. The boy automatically placed his gloved hands on the animal's back and stared down at it so he wouldn’t have to look at the woman in front of him.

“Varian” she started calmly “you fulfilled your end of the bargain today”

“Agamon is still not defeated and…” he broke off and bit his lower lip.

“It’s not your job to fight him” Arianna shook her head and sighed deeply before continuing “you don't think Frederic will keep his end of the bargain, do you?” the boy did not reply, was silent, but she still could see that she was right. His fingers in Ruddiger's bushy fur bored harder into the animal's back, tense and trembling and afraid “Fred doesn't break promises, I understand you don't have a very positive image of him, but he really doesn't. And if he does betray you, which I don't believe he will, I will make sure that you get what we agreed on”

“Why should you?” he asked softly, more weakly than bitterly, as if it were normal for him that the people around him betrayed him, that he emerged from all situations as a loser. Trust was a shaky, insecure thing that collapsed so easily. For some people trust was very valuable, had to be built like the walls of a castle for years, but it was so much easier to destroy it, to let it collapse, to pull that castle down. Rapunzel had destroyed his castle, even if she never intended to, and it would probably be years before he could put it back together. It was no wonder if you trusted someone and they betrayed you, whether on purpose or not, it would be incredibly difficult to trust someone again. So, Arianna chose her words wisely, tasting each and every one of them on her tongue so that she couldn't do more harm with them.

“Because I want to” she replied eventually “this day in Old Corona” she continued and he winced as if she had slapped him, but he had to hear it “I was incredibly afraid that day, almost as much as the day when I found Rapunzel's crib empty and this fear stayed with me for the last few months, haunted me like a shadow” she paused for a moment to allow the boy to say something too, to respond to her words, even if it would have been something angry. He opened his mouth a few times as if he actually wanted to say something, but he remained silent, whether it was stubbornness or something else, she couldn't tell “I think I should apologize to you”

“What?” he gasped, perplexed “why should you apologize to me?”

“I should have come to you much earlier” she admitted ashamed “before Rapunzel left, she asked my husband and me to help you, and yet I have never been able to bring myself to do just that. I was afraid of what I will find”

“I wouldn't have had anything nice to say to you” he replied evasively.

“It doesn't matter, I wanted to help you and yet I only came to you when we needed you” she shook her head “But I won't make the same mistake twice. I promise you will have the opportunity to help your father”

“I find it hard to believe the king's word” he finally admitted in a low voice, as if he were committing a crime.

“Do you believe mine?” Arianna asked, holding her breath as she waited for the answer. A few heartbeats passed before the boy finally nodded “should Fred really break his word, I'll make him keep his end of the bargain, I swear it on my daughter's life” it was a heavy oath, she didn't like to do it, she didn't like to swear on the lives of others, after all, they lived in a world filled with magic and she didn't like to play with those powers that she didn't understand. But she had to do it, she had to make sure he believed her.

He swallowed hard at her words, but understood how heavy this oath weighed, his gaze flew up to her, disbelief in his eyes that glittered with unshed tears. She could see the fear in him, the fear he had of believing someone again, of trusting someone, of relying on someone. He would not stand to be betrayed again, he would collapse, his soul would shatter into a thousand pieces that could no longer be put back together, no matter how hard you tried. What had her family done to this child? It would be hard to fix everything, but she was good at doing just that. She would do it for the boy in front of her and her daughter as well, it would take the burden off her shoulders, the guilt, they both needed it, whether they realized it or not.

“I know that words probably don't mean much to you anymore" she continued "I just hope you will wait long enough for my words to be followed by actions”

“I have to look after the solution” he got up, legs wobbly from something she hoped wasn't anger. It was as if he was fleeing from her, back to his test tubes, which he understood, and which made no promises that he could not believe in. Arianna let him because she had said everything there was to be said and she hoped it would be enough. Ruddiger gave her an undefined look, as if he wanted to ask her what she had done to his human to confuse him so much, then he ran after Varian and almost ostentatiously snuggled against his shin. The boy bent down and ruffled his fur for a moment before turning back to his solution. Arianna got up to follow him, not to continue the conversation, no. She didn't come very far as they all heard a deafening, pitiful, high-pitched scream, filled to the brim with fear, which fell silent moments later as if he had been suffocated. Lieutenant Kai drew his sword and stepped over to the queen, shielding her from the entrance to the spiral staircase.

“Stay behind me, Your Majesty” he spoke with a firm voice “Boy, get away from the table, stand in a corner where I can see you” Varian hesitated for a moment, cast a puzzled look at the spiral staircase, then an uncertain look at the tables in front of him where the chemicals were standing. The lieutenant pulled the crossbow from his belt and tucked it under his arm so that the bolt was pointing straight at the boy “just do it, boy, we don’t need you anymore so I won't hesitate” Varian swallowed hard, his face pale as paint, but obeyed and stumbled into a corner. The man pointed the point of the bolt at the entrance, relieved. Arianna looked around and picked up a chair, which she grabbed with both hands and pointed it in front of her like a sword with an iron determination. She should start carrying a weapon again, she thought bitterly, she had been in danger so many times as lately after all.

The air was thick in the room from all the anticipation that buzzed in it. The seconds passed painfully slowly, like a small eternity that seemed to find no end. They heard footsteps, a stair creaked under the weight of a person, Arianna's grip on the chair tightened, her fingers digging into the rough surface of the wood. Ruddiger hissed briefly, ran, and hid behind Varian's legs, who seemed to be frozen in his corner, as if he could no longer move, his eyes wide open, the trembling fingers folded on his chest. Then the room was filled with white smoke that blocked Arianna's view like thick fog stinging her windpipe like thousands of needles that brought tears to her eyes.

They all coughed, the chair slipping from the queen's fingers as she dropped to her knees with a groan. Her lung seemed to have caught fire, as if a tiny, hot flame had lodged itself inside, lodged there like a burdock, and even her cough couldn't drive it away. She heard footsteps, now almost directly in front of them, she heard a groan ahead of her, saw the shadow of the lieutenant who had shielded her from the danger flinch and grow inward, as if layers of stone were wrapping itself around him. Then she felt someone walk past her, open the window, and finally, finally, the smoke in the room cleared.

Someone then grabbed her arm and dragged her into a corner, threw her forward and she painfully collided with a wall that seemed to materialize out of nowhere in front of her. Her head was spinning as she hit the ground and it felt like someone had split her skull in half. The smoke disappeared and she looked up, her heart so fast that it pounded in her throat like a wild bird. The first thing the queen saw when she blinked the tears from her eyes, what the lieutenant, whose figure was covered by the bluish crystal, the sword still stretched out in front of him, his hand clasped over his mouth and his eyes narrowed tight. In front of him lay a crystallized bolt that he must have fired before his fate took him.

“Greetings, Your Majesty” a voice sounded cold mockery in it. She tore her gaze from the lieutenant and looked up at the man standing before her. Agamon was tall and thin, almost completely covered by the black cloak that buried his figure like a dark night. His ash-blond hair hung into his bony face like a dirty rag and the lower half of his face was covered by a dark cloth that must have protected him from the smoke. In his hand, he held a vial with a bluish smoke in it that couldn’t be anything but his deadly creation. With the other hand, he pulled the cloth from his face, grinning maliciously down at her, as if she were nothing more than a tiny insect that he would be happy to trample under his boots.

“Agamon” Arianna breathed softly, trying to get the fear out of her voice.

“You have come a long way, Your Majesty” he looked down at the construction on the table “but as I see you had help” his gaze shifted slightly to Varian who was standing in his corner, hands clasped over his mouth, eyes red from the smoke and filled with fear, and Arianna tried to get up, rush over to him and shield him from the monster's gaze, but her legs felt like they had been cast in lead. The boy winced, pressing himself even tighter into the wall in his back “you don't need to be afraid of me, boy” Agamon laughed dryly “I heard about you, Varian of Old Corona, underrated and not appreciated for the things you can do” he grinned broadly and walked over to him “you are no friend of Corona, they betrayed you, just as they betrayed me, they threw you into the deepest hole they had, only digging you out when they needed you as if you were nothing but a soulless tool” the boy shook his head, opened his mouth, and closed it again “It only took you three days to neutralize my creation, that is truly remarkable, your intellect is too good to waste it on these fools”

“Let him alone, Agamon” Arianna choked out, straightened up a little, managed to pull her limbs, which no longer wanted to obey her, a few centimeters towards her before she collapsed again.

“Quit!” the man hissed “this is a conversation between colleagues, understood?” he turned to the boy again “join me boy and I'll help you get revenge on these people, or do you want something else?” he patted his chin in thoughts “well, I heard about your father and what happened to him. I will help you save him if you join me, I am sure that we will find a way together” then he fell silent, waited and Arianna's heart sank down into her stomach, where it was laying heavily because Varian would agree for he was desperate and Agamon was the only one who had offered him his help.

“No, Varian, don't listen to him, he won't help you” Arianna spoke with a trembling voice.

“I told you to be quiet!” Agamon roared at her “can’t you just be quiet this one time, I liked you much better dying!” then he turned back to the boy, dangling a key from his finger, and the queen recognized it as the one to open Varian's chain. He must have ripped it off the lieutenant's belt before turning him into a crystal statue “so, colleague? Your answer?” Varian's eyes darted wildly across the room, came to rest on Arianna, helpless, as if he didn't quite know what to do, as if he was asking her what he had to do. Then his eyebrows contracted in mute resolution, and the woman hoped he would choose the right side. It was as if all the tension had fallen from him, dissolved into thin air, fallen off him like an annoying coat.

“You will really help me save my father?” he asked softly, and it felt as if these words had hit Arianna as if she had crashed into the wall again.

“Varian” she breathed helplessly, but the boy ignored her, did not look at her.

“Oh, yes, I certainly will” Agamon grinned in triumph.

“Then I accept” Varian said coldly and Agamon tossed him the key. The boy caught it and opened the lock on his shackle.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I didn‘t manage to post this chapter yesterday. I was pretty busy, so...

Arianna felt like she wasn’t the one experiencing the events in front of her. Like she was nothing more than a silent observer and not the one sitting on the cold floor with tingling feet that felt like they went to sleep while everything in her body was yelling to move, jump up, fight, do something. Her gaze rested on Varian, his face devoid of any slice of emotions as if he wasn’t feeling a single thing but the icy cold that blew towards her like a frosty winter wind. But the worst part was that she couldn't blame him for betraying her now, for seizing the opportunity to save his father.

She could understand it, more than she expected, even if it still hurt. He didn't have many options; he didn't think Frederic would keep his promise. She was just hoping he would think she would keep hers. But apparently, these four days were precious little to forge a bond with him, to make him forget that he has been betrayed before. To get him to trust those who held him prisoner.

“Varian, you don’t have to do this” she said softly, putting as much honesty in her words as she could manage “that’s not who you are”

“No, that’s exactly who I am” the boy replied coldly. Ruddiger chattered worriedly, grabbed his pant leg with his paws as if begging him to stop, but Varian ignored him and turned to Agamon, who was watching them both in amusement as if he were watching a play that was being performed only for him alone “what will happen to her?” the boy asked uncertainly.

“Well, colleague” the man grinned wide and maliciously “the royal couple should share the fate of their kingdom, but I want to see Frederic’s face when I turn her into a crystal statue, so we will have to keep her alive just a little longer” he stepped up to the boy and picked up the chain that had been hanging from his ankle this past days “that should keep her in check” he ended and approached Arianna. The queen backed away from him, crawling back a few inches until her back hit the wall behind her. The feeling returned to her limbs, she will be able to get up, but it would be of no use now. If only she had had a weapon, something to oppose the monster in front of her, but she had nothing.

“No, let me do it” Varian stepped up to him and held out his hand expectantly “I've been their prisoner long enough” Agamon grinned triumphantly. He clamped the chain under the foot of a table, shortened it so that it didn't offer as much freedom of movement as it had before. Then he handed it to the boy who approached the queen with a rock-hard face, crouched down in front of her and it reminded her painfully of this terrible day in Old Corona, brought her old fear to life, dragged it out of the darkest corner of her mind.

“Varian” she breathed helplessly as he opened the cuff and placed it over her ankle.

“When he is distracted, run” he whispered barely audibly, he clicked the lock on the shackle without actually snapping it shut and got up, not looking into her face and she almost sobbed with relief that flooded her heart. It was a trick, he hadn't betrayed her, he had just pretended so she would have a chance to escape.

He moved away from her again, pulled a plunger with a milky white substance from his boot as he walked. So, this was his escape plan, she thought bitterly, of course; they couldn't let him get close to chemicals and expect him not to steal something in case he was betrayed, she just hoped it was nothing too dangerous. He hid the flask in his hand when he stepped back to Agamon.

“I saw your device downstairs” the man spoke “rather remarkable. I was never really interested in mechanics, but I must admit, there are advantages to this area as well. With it, we will be able to wipe out all of Corona”

“Why do you want to kill everyone in Corona?” Varian asked with pretended curiosity “the king betrayed you, not them”

“The naivety of a child” Agamon laughed dryly and humorless and maliciously “a king represents the people. If you want to hit the king, you have to strike his people. You will understand it when you get older” he put a hand on his shoulder, almost like a companion. Ruddiger chattered up at him angrily, but the man ignored him “why are you asking? Do you pity them, boy?”

“No” Varian shrugged “I don’t care for the people of Corona” he lied and this time Arianna could see that he no longer believed in it “can you explain to me how it works?” he asked curiously and Agamon turned to the table in front of him, away from the boy.

Varian waved to the queen behind his back and she got ready. Then he threw the piston on the floor. The glass rattled as it broke and the room was once again filled with white smoke, but this time it didn't sting so much in her lungs, it tasted almost like sugar. Arianna jumped to her feet in one smooth movement, getting tangled in her dress. Sometimes she hated dresses, she thought as she started to move and grabbed a chair because she had no intention of just running away and especially not leaving the boy here alone.

“You dare to betray me, brat!” Agamon roared angrily. Arianna couldn't really see them with all the smoke. All she saw were two shadows, one tall and the other small, and it wasn't hard to guess who was who.

The big shadow pounced on the little one with a roar, she could see shadowy arms reaching for the boy somewhere near his neck and she started moving before she could realize what she was doing. She slammed the chair on Agamon, knocking it down on his head like a hammer. The man gave a strange, muffled hiss and went down. Arianna grabbed the boy's arm, dragged him behind her, past the lifeless statue that once had been the lieutenant, down the stairs and out into the open, past the frozen figures of Finn and Jonas – the alchemist seemed to have surprised them next to the machine.

Her feet burned from the adrenaline rushing through her body wave after wave as she ran. The boy stumbled after her, Ruddiger on his heels. They only came to a stop in the village, sheltered by the crystal houses Arianna pulled him behind. Both gasped for air that felt like thousands of tiny needles in Arianna's lungs. She had never run so quickly, so frantically, and she cursed the heels of her delicate shoes.

She should have put on boots for this trip and a riding suit and a sword, but no, she had gotten so used to the quiet life with Frederic that she went off in her dress. She slid down the wall and saw Varian do the same across from her. He was still gasping for breath and trembling like a leaf in the wind. Ruddiger climbed onto his lap and looked up at him in concern. They sat like this for a few moments, in silence, for none of them would be able to utter a word. But slowly the queen's breath calmed down, slowly her wildly pounding heart was no longer beating quite as hard in her ears.

“That went better than expected” Arianna gasped “is everything OK, Varian?” the boy looked up at her uncertainly, grabbed his neck, which was showing the first signs of bruises in the form of Agamon's scrawny fingers. But he still nodded, “you saved me” Arianna continued softly, “thank you” he swallowed hard, shook his head, as uncertain as she hadn't seen him even after the corpse in the village.

“You…” he started, his voice hoarse “You shouldn’t be thanking me, not me, I…” he broke off again and stared at the floor in shame “I've tried to kill you and other people, I've tried to kill people” he sobbed, and it was as if a dam had been broken, a dam that had protected him for months from his guilt, from his own thoughts. But now it couldn't take the pressure any longer, now it just collapsed. “I tried to kill you”

“Varian” the queen breathed and moved towards him, putting a hand on his shoulder, gently and he winced at her touch.

“I tried to kill you” he repeated tearfully. She pulled him into her arms while he cried, finally admitting the guilt in his heart “I am sorry, I am sorry, I am sorry” he repeated like a mantra while sobbing into her dress. She let him, let him repeat this sentence over and over again. She drew soothing circles over his back and she felt the tears that were also gathering in her own eyes.

“I forgive you” she said gently while stroking his hair soothingly. He needed this, he needed these tears and he needed this guilt and even if it broke her heart to see someone this way, so dissolved, so vulnerable, so hurt, he had to go through it, however painful it was. He had to realize the terrible mistake he had made out of desperation and she was glad that she could be with him at this moment, that he was not alone with these thoughts that plagued him now.

“You shouldn’t. I tried to kill you” he sobbed “It was all my fault, I wanted to do something good, I wanted to protect the village from the black rocks and... and Dad told me to leave it alone, warned me, but I... I just kept going and then... then I poured this solution over the rocks and the amber grew and... and... it was all my fault; I should have been in there, not him!”

“It was an accident, Varian” the queen spoke softly.

“And then... then I blamed Rapunzel for everything, because if I hadn't, then I would have... then I would have to admit to myself that it was all my fault” he stopped sobbing as if there were no more tears left to shed. He went limp in her arms, as if all strength had left his body “and then…then I kidnapped you, nearly killed you and the guards and Cassandra…I nearly killed Cassie”

“But we are all still alive” Arianna spoke gently “no one died, no one was seriously hurt, except for the pride of our men, who were ashamed of having almost lost to a fourteen-year-old boy” she gave a short laugh to lighten the mood a little because it was true, male pride was such a delicate, fragile thing and it had been hard on many of their men to have been beaten by a child.

“But only because I failed, I wanted to kill you all, I wanted to kill people” he sobbed weakly “and now, now Agamon is going to use my machine to kill even more people and it will be my fault again”

“No, Varian” she held him a little away from her, looked into his face, his puffy, reddened eyes that had so much guilt in them “It's true, you've made some very wrong decisions in the past, but you are not to blame for the things Agamon will do, you've tried to do good and you will, we're going to use this machine to save people”

“It's always like that when I try to do something good, I still hurt everyone around me” he said softly.

“No, it’s not” she brushed a loose strand of hair from his flushed face “Everything will be alright, I promise you. You'll get a chance to set things right” he needed, these words, this painful realization that he had met here.

“I am sorry” he repeated and threw himself around her neck and she closed her arms around his trembling shoulders again “I am sorry, I am so sorry”.

Arianna didn't know how long they sat there while Varian went through his well-deserved and so much needed catharsis, realizing what he'd done, repenting, and chokingly apologizing to her as she kept repeating that she forgave him because it was true, she forgave him. She understood him, his reasons and motives and his fears and worries and her heart was warm from all the hope.

She wished Rapunzel could see them now, could see that her friend had fought his way out of the darkness he fell into and even if he was feeling terribly badly right now it won't last. This pain will soon leave him, now that he has spoken it out, now it was able to leave his battered heart. Now he had a chance to heal. Ruddiger snuggled up to his side while he sobbed, but he didn't interfere, as if he understood that his human needed this pain so terribly. Over time he calmed down, wiped the tears from his reddened eyes, and looked up at her tentatively.

“Agamon is still there” he spoke with a hollow voice “he will use the machine to…” he broke off, unable to end this sentence.

“Then we have to stop him” she smiled down at him.

“Yes” he looked out from between the houses at the mill they were able to see in the distance “but how?”

“Did you manage to steal something else?” Arianna asked, his ears blazing with shame.

“I, I just wanted to…” he broke off in shame.

“I understand, you didn't trust us, you took advantage of the opportunities you had” the queen shook her head “I'm not blaming you to do so”

“It was just a smoke bomb, it was completely harmless, I was just…” he broke off with a deep sigh and looked up at her uncertainly as if expecting her to reprimand him.

“Varian, you sacrificed your escape plan for me” Arianna spoke softly “I don't blame you for wanting to take your fate into your own hands”

“Will you tell the king?” the boy asked almost anxiously as if he were afraid of giving Frederic a reason not to keep his end of the bargain.

“Oh, you can count on it” she grinned mischievously, and the corners of his mouth went down “I will certainly tell him how you saved my life”

“I have nothing else” he sighed in relief “but there are chemicals left in the mill, if I can get to them, I could mix something together that will stop Agamon”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I‘m not sure that I will manage to post the next chapter on sunday like usually. It could get a little bit later again. I will try to update as soon as I manage to.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm back, sorry it took so long. From now on the chapters will be posted once a week again. I also want to apologize to all the people who have posted comments to me over the past few weeks. Unfortunately, I completely missed answering it. I thank everyone who takes the time to leave me a comment, of course, and it means a lot to me. And now enjoy reading.

Their plan was simple. Arianna and Ruddiger would distract Agamon for Varian to be able to sneak up to the lab and mix something together that would stop their enemy. The boy said there would be enough ingredients upstairs to mix the glue he had often used as a trap in his own lab.

The two of them were lying in the tall grass at the moment, Ruddiger somewhere next to them, a bit away from the mill and out of sight. Agamon was crouching by the machine, apparently trying to figure out how to start it, how to feed it with his chemical, to alienate it, to let it bring destruction instead of salvation. Varian clenched his fists over the grass bushes as he watched him do so and Arianna put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Everything will be alright” she whispered, barely audible, and reached for the sword they had found in the now exposed forge. It was a little too heavy for her, she preferred light weapons that allowed quick movements, but it was better than nothing. She would rather go into battle with a heavy weapon than none. Ruddiger chattered when he felt worried about his human.

“Ruddiger” said the boy softly and the raccoon understood without words. The animal scurried forward, crept up to the man without being spotted, ran up to him, bit his thin ankle, and disappeared as fast as he came in the tall grass. The man hissed, jumped up, and looked around frantically, looking for the attacker who could no longer be seen.

It was risky to send Ruddiger, and Arianna could see the worry on Varian’s pale face for his furry friend, but it was the best distraction they could find. Ruddiger was small and quick, and Agamon would not expect such an attack. Arianna's grip on the weapon tightened, she clenched her knees to jump up when the time came. She had to be quick, they both had to.

“Get ready, Varian” she spoke softly and the boy next to her nodded curtly, his eyes fixed on the man in front of them, who was looking for the invisible attacker with narrowed eyes. Soon, the queen thought, soon. Ruddiger jumped out of the grass again, sank his little teeth one more time into the flesh of the man, who winced and shook him off angrily. The raccoon jumped on the machine, chattered almost mockingly, turned once in a circle and Agamon growled angrily, jumped at the animal, and turned his back on the two humans in the grass.

“Now” Arianna breathed and jumped up. The heavy sword in her hands slowed her steps, pulling her down with its weight, the heels of her shoes sank slightly into the earth as she walked and with every step, she had the feeling she would stumble, fall like a sack of potatoes and it would be over before it really started. But she didn't fall down, she wasn't too slow and before Agamon could turn around, she was already behind him, lifted the sword with trembling arms, and held it to his neck. Ruddiger chattered triumphantly, jumped off the machine, and came to a stop next to her right foot, hissed at his human's enemy as if he actually hated him.

“You are brave for a queen” said Agamon drawn out, almost bored.

“Did you really thought I will do nothing to save my kingdom?” the woman replied. The enemy had their back to her, turned away from the mill entrance, and she realized she could kill him, cut off his head with her sword before he could do anything, but no, he could have something with him that she did not know about, after all, she knew the harm an angry alchemist could cause.

They should go ahead with their plan, she could kill him once Varian was in the mill. It was unlike her to think about murder so easily and so quickly, for her mind to simply decide on taking someone’s life. She'd always been against killing her enemies because death was something permanent, something brutal, something that could not be changed.

Hadn't Eugene proved to them how terribly wrong it could go to execute someone without thinking ahead? Wouldn't it be an execution too if she just killed the man in front of her? He wouldn't live long if they arrested him now. She was sure that Frederic would sentence him to death no matter how this fight ends. He was already dead. But was it her place to make the final blow?

He had his back to her, had no weapon in his hands that she could make out, nothing that threatened her at the moment. Wasn't he just like the boy she'd held in her arms so recently? Who had cried, who had sobbed excuses in her dress? No, he wasn't, she decided bitterly, he'd killed people without even hesitating for a moment, without having a reason but an old grudge. Still, she was not ready to end his life, he will be punished for his crimes and her husband will send him to the gallows, but he would get a fair trial and answer before the law and not before a single woman whose judgment fogged with feelings and fear. So she stayed still. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw how Varian sneaked quietly past them both and disappeared into the entrance of the mill.

“You are pesky” Agamon rolled his eyes “the sword has no place in a woman's hands” with these words he reached into his pocket and threw a piston on the ground at his feet. She had missed her chance, the queen thought bitterly as white smoke rose at his feet, swallowing the scene in front of her and the man with it.

Arianna pulled the cloth over her mouth that she had cut from the hem of her dress, protecting herself from the acidic smoke that reached for her lungs and stabbed her mercilessly in the eyes. Too bad she didn't have goggles, but Varian needed his more urgently if he had to handle chemicals upstairs. He had offered them to her, and she had refused. The queen stepped back, grasped the hilt of the sword tighter in her hands, raised the weapon in front of her, her eyes fixed in front of her without swaying. She just had to buy time, which meant she just had to not die until Varian was back. Ruddiger chattered next to her, snuggled almost apologetically against her ankle, and ran away. Good, she didn't want him to get hurt.

Agamon was nothing more than a shadow in front of her, long and thin, but that meant that he couldn't see her as well, couldn't make her out between the smoke, but he didn't need to, he just had to throw something at her, something that was more dangerous than that smoke.

She should attack first, Arianna thought bitterly. She shifted her weight on her right foot, put all the strength she could manage in her arms and struck the shadow in front of her with a powerful blow. For a moment the triumph sang its victory song in her heart as she hit the shadow before her, but it fell silent as a wave of force swept through her arms and the sword slipped from her trembling fingers, flying to one side.

A burst of almost insane laughter filled the silence, high-pitched and screeching as if someone were scratching a nail over a windowpane. The smoke in front of her cleared, vanished into thin air, and she realized her mistake. She hadn't hit Agamon, but Jonas in his crystal prison.

“You should work on your marksmanship” sneered Agamon, and she spun around to face him. She hadn't even noticed how he stepped behind her. In his hand, he held another vial with a bluish liquid in it. Arianna jumped aside, towards her dropped sword, but before she could reach it the man threw the vial at it. The glass shattered and covered the sword with the blue crystal “You're running out of options”

“You will lose, Agamon” the queen brought out as calmly as she was able to manage.

“Where is the boy, Your Majesty?” the alchemist hissed instead of an answer.

“Do you think I will bring a child to a battle?” replied Arianna, hoping that Varian had reached the lab, that he would find what he needed. She had to talk to him, buy time so the boy could do so.

“His age has not prevented you from throwing him in the dungeons” Agamon shrugged “Do you think I wouldn’t find him? That I will hesitate?” he tilted his head a little and Arianna's heart made a short, fearful hop, the mother in her screeched, scared and angry, wanted to lunge herself at the man in front of her, but she didn’t move. Let him talk, she thought, as long as he talked, he stood in front of her and did nothing, and they gained valuable time “don't worry, I won't kill him, he's too valuable, he needed only a few days for such a machine, I'll find a use for him” le laughed again.

“You are a monster, Agamon” Arianna said bitterly and clenched her fists.

“You pointless talking is tiring” the man rolled his eyes as if he were talking to a naughty child who had asked him the same question for the hundredth time “I changed my mind. I will have to forego the satisfaction of turning you into a statue in front of your scum of a husband. This” he lifted a new, equally blue piston into the air “is a concentrated version of Vindictanium, it doesn't work as fast as the gas, but it is so much more painful” he uncorked the flask, took a step toward her, and she backed away. What could she do, she thought feverishly, what options did she have?

She had nothing, no weapon, no other tool to help her, nothing at all. She should have learned to fight without weapons, as Cassandra had done, she should have taken something with her other than the sword that lay useless at her feet. Her heart was pounding wildly in her chest from all the fear that drove it, like the wind the windmill and it was worse than the fight in Old Corona because then she did not know whether the amber would kill her because then she still thought that she could say something that would make her confused enemy hesitate.

She was going to die, she thought bitterly, she was going to die, and she would never see her daughter and her husband again. She would not be there when Rapunzel returned from her trip, she would not be able to see her wedding, she would never get to know her grandchildren, she would be dead.

She tore a shoe off her foot and threw it desperately at him and he laughed at her fruitless attempts, her struggle that was doomed to fail. She stumbled back, fell, and he leaned over her, a flask that will kill her in hand. She would not close her eyes, she thought bitterly, she would not tremble with fear in her last moments like a child, she would look her end in the eye with her head held high, as befits a queen.

Agamon lifted the flask over her with an expression of morbid delight, tipped it to one side, and winced as the bolt of a crossbow broke his chest from behind. His hand with the piston trembled, fell over his head, covered him before he fell, exposing the entrance to the windmill.

The lieutenant stood in it, leaning heavily on Varian, who was holding the man upright, the crossbow still in his hands. It was as if thousands of small wounds covered his skin, deep red spots that ran over his face, but his gaze was fixed in front of him, satisfaction in his eyes when the enemy finally went to the ground.The lieutenant held on for a few more moments but slackened and Varian gently helped him to the ground.

“Are you all right?” the boy asked timidly, uncertain, his eyes wide with shock fixed on the crystal that had covered Agamon's corpse.

“Yes” the queen breathed gently, knowing that this question was addressed to her and not to their enemy. Ruddiger ran out from behind the mill, snuggled against her leg as he passed, and finally stopped by his human.

“Lieutenant, how are you?” Arianna crouched down in front of the faithful soldier who had saved her life.

“Hah” the man gasped bitterly “this hellish stuff shouldn't exist, but I'll probably survive it”

“The crystal did not have enough time to really destroy his tissue, the injuries are superficial and, apart from a few scars, will not leave any permanent damage” Varian said timidly “Helga and Sofia are currently looking for bandages”

“Are both of them all right?” Arianna asked relieved.

“Agamon did not pour the crystal over them” the boy shook his head “he only locked them up” and just at that moment, the two girls stepped into the entrance. Both had eyes flushed with tears and disheveled hair, but they looked unharmed.

“Your Majesty, you are unharmed” Sofia breathed relieved and Arianna gave the both of them a friendly smile.

“We found bandages” Helga crouched down in front of the lieutenant and Sofia joined her.

“What happened up there?” Arianna pulled Varian aside while the two maids tended to the lieutenant “I thought you wanted to mix something”

“There was hope that he was still alive” replied the boy uncertainly, his eyes fixed on the lieutenant “so I tried and…” he broke off and shrugged helplessly “then he wanted to go downstairs immediately and help you. On the way down we heard Helga and Sofia and freed them”

“If the lieutenant is still alive, then…” she looked over at the lifeless statues of Jonas and Finn.

“Yes” Varian nodded and approached them, “but they were in there a little longer than the lieutenant, so I don't know if...” he broke off and bit his lip.

“I am sure it will work” Arianna said softly and put a hand on his shoulder “how can I help?” he handed her a vial with his antidote. They went to work without a word, covered the crystal with the solution that ate its way through, and exposed the people underneath and for a moment Arianna was actually afraid that they were really too late, that the men under these layers were long dead.

But they weren't, they came free, panting and gasping for air, their faces in worse shape than the lieutenant's, but they were alive and they were free. Helga and Sofia approached the two of them, helped them into the mill, and tended their wounds. Varian stepped up to Agamon uncertainly, lifted the vial in his hands, and was about to start the work, but the lieutenant hobbled over to him, put a heavy hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t” he shook his head, but without the hostility that a few hours ago was still in his voice whenever he talked to the boy.

“But” Varian managed to say helplessly.

“He is not worth it and now come on, we still have to turn on your machine and uncover the village” he pulled the boy back to the mill. The maids brought down the buckets of the solution and helped Varian fill the machine with them. Arianna watched them from the entrance.

“Do you still think I am too soft?” she asked the lieutenant, who was leaning against the wall next to her, too stubborn to join his men on the floor. The man snorted but made no reply and it was as if he agreed with her. Maybe he really was.

The machine made a strange whirring noise before conjuring that special rain into the air. Varian and the girls ran back into the mill and they all watched from there as the crystal slowly melted from the houses and the streets and the trees like ice on a warm spring day. From a distance, they could see the corpses collapsing in the streets. Now they could at least be buried properly.

It was over, Arianna thought with a bitter smile on her face that didn't reach her heart, left a strange foul aftertaste on her tongue and she suddenly realized how tired she was, how tired they all were. Agamon's corpse was also uncovered, now lying at an unnatural angle in a pool of blood that had collected under it.

They withdrew into the mill, helping the three injured among them into a more comfortable position that would not cause them as much pain. Arianna carried blankets down to them with the two maids. The two tried to resist her help, for it was not worthy of a queen to do such work, but she waved them off. She might be a queen, but they had far too few hands out here and she was more than happy to condescend to help her fellow humans.

After a while, they heard the thunderous sound of hundreds of steps approaching the mill like a wild thunderstorm. The men tentatively reached for their swords and Arianna held her breath. A squad appeared on the horizon and her heart skipped a short hop when she recognized the Corona sun on their standards.

Three men separated from the troop, galloped towards them and she recognized Frederic at their head, dressed in his dark traveling clothes, he liked so much but had so seldom an opportunity to wear. Arianna ran towards him like a little girl, but she was so happy to see him because this really meant that it was finally over, that they could all return home, that there will be no more victims. In the background she could see the rest of the troops riding towards the village, probably to help the freed people.

When Frederic arrived at the mill, he jumped from his horse and she almost flew into his arms, which closed around her. In moments like these, she realized again how much she loved this man with all his stubbornness and his flaws and his good heart behind all the hard looks.

“Arianna” he breathed and held her away from him, looking her up and down. She must look disheveled, she laughed, she must look terribly messed up in her torn dress, which was covered with green patches of grass and wet dew and Varian's tears “are you unharmed?” he asked worried and she laughed, leaned over to him and pressed her lips to his.

“Yes” she breathed “I am well, Fred”

“Are you sure?” he raised his eyebrow skeptically “you look disheveled”

“All is well, Agamon is dead and the crystal is gone, it's over” she spoke softly. Frederic cast a look at the corpse of his enemy, a shadow flickered over his face, undefined and dark and she pulled him away from the sight.

“Serves him just right” growled the king as he let his wife pull him into the mill “he would have been hanged anyway”

“Now come on, Fred, no dark thoughts, we won, it's over” she spoke further.

“What is this?” he asked skeptically as they passed the machine.

“Oh, that's one of Varian's machines, it exposed the village, I'm not sure how it works, I'll ask him about it later” waved Arianna away.

“You let the boy build a machine?” asked Frederic shocked “Arianna, you know more than anyone else how dangerous his creations are!”

“And yet it exposed the village” the queen replied “Fred, I know what you're thinking, but Varian had the opportunity to betray us, to join Agamon, but he didn't, instead he risked his life to save me” she sighed deeply and continued, her happy mood fading “I hope you don't plan to break your promise”

“Do you have such a bad opinion of me?” he raised an eyebrow, almost hurt by her harsh words.

“No” she shook her head “but you tend to hold a grudge against people who threatened your family”

“Can you blame me?” he huffed, now definitely offended.

“No, but you should learn when it is time to let your rage fall down on your enemies like a hammer and when to forgive. Wouldn't it be better to have him on our side?” she smiled gently “It only took him a day to build a machine that could make rain”

“Rain” he looked at the machine again, a reluctant curiosity in his eyes “it can conjure up rain?”

“Well, not really conjure” she shrugged “the expression 'conjuring up' would only offend him, but yes, you put a couple of buckets of water in it and it rains”

“Witchcraft” he growled grimly.

“Science” she laughed.

“You really want me to give him a second chance, don't you?” Frederic shook his head.

“Everyone deserves a second chance” she shrugged and he glanced at her like she'd gone mad “may I please remind you of the notorious thief who brought our daughter back to us without asking for a reward”

“Eugene never tried to kill anyone” the king growled back, but she could tell that he had already given up.

“And Varian only did it once because he was desperate and couldn't see any other way out” she gently put a hand on his arm “he begged my forgiveness”

“Where is the boy anyway?” asked Frederic instead of an answer when they finally entered the mill. Arianna let her gaze wander around the room and sure enough, Varian wasn't there.

“He must be up in the lab,” said the queen thoughtfully.

“Up in the lab!? With all the dangerous substances!?” Frederic huffed and beckoned his men over, who seemed to notice his mood and reached for their crossbows.

“I'm sure he just wants to…” Arianna started and fell silent because there was no need for Varian to be in the lab anymore. The danger was averted, they no longer needed a solution because there was nothing left of the crystal that could be neutralized. Oh no, thought the woman as she hurried after her husband up the spiral staircase before anything terrible could happen.

Once at the top, they saw Varian standing in front of the tables, a flask with a pink substance in his hands, and he winced when they all entered, spun around to them, the flask stretched out in front of him like a weapon that it probably was. The guards jerked the crossbows up, aimed the bolts at the boy, and Arianna knew they wouldn't hesitate to shoot.

The boy gasped for air, took an uncertain step back, his gaze flew to Arianna and the queen gave him an encouraging smile, nodded briefly in the hope he would understand this gesture correctly. Then he sighed deeply, almost defeated, put the flask on the table, stepped away from the work surface, and wordlessly held out his wrists and Arianna let out a relieved breath as the guards hesitantly approached him and put chains around his wrists.

“You gave me your word, Your Majesty” he said softly as he was led past them and the woman wasn't quite sure which of them he meant. It wasn't over yet, she thought bitterly as she followed him with her eyes in silence, there was still something to be done, something to be set right, one last person to be saved and she would be damned if she didn’t.


	13. Chapter 13

It was almost like a déjà vu when Varian was led down into the ruthless cold of the dungeons again, down the steep stairs, past the dark cells other malevolent souls followed him with their eyes out from. That was the place where he belonged, the boy thought bitterly, where people like him belonged, vicious creatures who harmed others out of sheer selfishness. He deserved it, he knew that now, he had tried to kill people, he had tried to kill the queen, so it was right that he was here now. But from here he couldn't help his father, wouldn't get a chance to make amends for even a small part of what he had caused in his burning anger, and even if it wasn’t important to others, it was important to him.

The return trip to the castle had been a jumble of desperation and guilt. He had crouched on the floor in the box-shaped carriage and cried until he had no more tears left. Why had he mixed that glue? How could he have been so stupid? He wanted options he had lost with the smoke bomb.

He hadn't really intended to use it to harm anyone, he just wanted something up his sleeve, a little way out so he wouldn't have to rely on the word of a liar. Now the king had an excuse not to keep his word, now he would never get out of this musty cell again. Now he never would be able to save his father. He had screwed it up again, he had ruined everything again, had dug his own grave, had abandoned his father again.

It was all in vain, but no, it wasn’t in vain, he had saved people, he had done the right thing, probably for the first time in his short life, and now he had at least this little warm memory to think back to when he rotted away down here. At least the queen had found the kindness in her heart to forgive him. Yes, that was the thought he should hold on to, not another failure in his ever-growing list.

He was in a trance when the guards led him into his cell, almost carefully removed the handcuffs from his wrists, and closed the cell door behind him. He stopped where they'd left him, unable to move. Ruddiger snuggled up to his leg, rubbed his head reassuringly against his knee and he shouldn't be here, shouldn't have to endure the dungeons for the human who had thoughtlessly turned him into a monster, and yet the boy couldn't bring himself to chase him away, because then he would be completely alone, and he would probably not be able to bear that. How selfish of him, he thought bitterly.

“Hey, buddy” Andrew called for him and it was as if his voice tore the boy out of his unpleasant thoughts.

Varian's gaze flew to the man, who was smiling gently and understandingly at him, but today he could see the calculating look in his eyes as if the man were thinking over every sentence before saying it, as if every gesture, every word, each expression served to manipulate the people around him and make them do what he wanted to. The boy didn't reply, because he would not give in, he decided bitterly, would not let himself be fooled by this monster in human form who could be so much more dangerous than Agamon and his lust for murder.

“I thought they hanged you” Andrew continued “I was worried. What have they done to you? You don’t seem healthy”

“I will never help you” Varian said in a husky voice because no, he wouldn't, he would never hurt anyone carelessly again, even if he was stuck here for the rest of his life.

“You shouldn't jump to conclusions, buddy” the man replied with a dangerous edge to his voice “you want to save your father, right? That can be difficult from down there. The Separatists of Saporia can offer you resources that you will never get anywhere else”

“I won’t help you” repeated the boy, his voice stronger now, no longer the insecure thing that was stuck in his throat and it brought him strength because no, he would stay here, would make no mistake, and maybe they would need him again and then he would prove to them that they could trust him. He no longer harbored grudges against them, even against the king, who was partly to blame for all of this, but his guilt was no greater than Varian's own.

“Well, maybe you won't now, but I'm telling you, boy” Andrew continued “you will change your mind and you will beg to join me”

“No, I won’t” the boy replied firmly “Guards!” he called as loudly as he managed to.

“Make no mistake now, boy” the man hissed maliciously as Stan and Pete came around the corner, pausing indecisively between their cells.

“He is planning a prison break” Varian told them without taking his eyes off of Andrew “he's been trying to get me to help him for months. He wants me to build a bomb for him so he can throw it on Corona”

“You will regret that boy” Andrew hissed as Stan and Pete opened the door of his cell and dragged him out.

“Will I?” Varian asked after him as the three disappeared around the corner. It felt like a victory, a tiny little victory that wasn't difficult for him to achieve and yet it was one none the less. He couldn’t really tell if it was over the darkness or the uncertainty in his heart, but he felt better about himself afterward.

He smiled into the darkness of the cell, sat down on his bare bunk, because whatever the future might bring, even if he stayed in this hole for the rest of his life, he would do the right thing, the boy decided and it felt almost liberating, even more than the excuses he had whispered between his tears in the midst of crystal houses. Ruddiger jumped up to him and curled up against his side. Varian raised a hand and gently stroked his bushy fur.

The boy did not know how long he sat like this, so much more calmly as he has not been since that fateful snowstorm, maybe it was hours, maybe it was minutes, but then he heard heavy footsteps approaching his cell. The captain stopped in front of the bars, almost indecisive, and Varian got up and stepped up to him.

“The king wants to see you” he spoke with something undefined in his voice that the boy couldn't quite place, maybe it was anger, maybe it was confusion. That was another someone he hurt back then, Cassandra's father, who did nothing more than serve his country. The man opened the bars and Varian held out his wrists “that won’t be necessary” the captain huffed “and take the raccoon with you” the boy blinked up at him in confusion, at a loss as to what that meant.

Had the king still decided to keep his word? Faint hope was planted in his heart, but no, it couldn't be, he had done terrible things, unforgivable things. He had tried to kill people, he thought bitterly. But the queen had forgiven him “I don't have all day, boy” the man grumbled and Varian hastily patted his knee.

“Ruddiger, come here, buddy” he called for the raccoon and the animal jumped up and ran up his arm and sat on his shoulder as usual. It really felt like a déjà vu and he couldn't quite believe that this trip had only lasted four days, not even a week. So much had changed since then.

“Why does His Majesty wants to see me?” Varian asked timidly as the captain put a hand on his shoulder and led him out of the dungeons.

The man did not reply, only stared stoically straight ahead of him until they arrived at the door of the king's study. The captain pushed the door, which swung open almost painfully slowly on its hinges and Varian swallowed the heavy lump in his throat.

Now everything would be decided, now he would find out whether these people, he had done so much to, were ready to give him a second chance. The captain motioned for him to enter. His legs felt like lead, trembled like never before in his life when he hesitantly entered and the door slammed with a loud, final bang behind him as if there was no way back for him.

The king's study was lit by a single candle, casting strange shadows on the face of the man before him, making him look darker than he already was, as it had been the first time he had been brought here. Or was it his own mind? Varian was terrified of this man who had so much power over the people around him.

The queen was not in the room this time and this fact alone made the boy more nervous, planted fear in his heart. He had gotten so used to her presence in the past few days that it was really strange not to see her here. He shouldn't be surprised, she was a queen and he was nothing more than a farmer's son, so why should she be here? Be interested in his fate? After all, they didn't need him anymore, now that Agamon was dead. He should learn to get along without her.

“Sit down, boy” the king said tiredly. Varian swallowed hard and sat down timidly, looking up at the man who was going to decide his fate, his life in the truest sense of the word, he still could decide at any time to hang him for his crimes and be done with it.

Ruddiger jumped on Varian's lap, stared up at the king almost demonstratively as if he were about to say, 'This is my human, so hands off!'. The boy put a reassuring hand on his back and he wasn't sure which one of them needed this gesture more, the raccoon or himself. The king looked at him for a long time with thoughtful eyes, as if he didn't quite know what to do with him. Then he sighed deeply, reached into a drawer, and took out a flask Varian easily recognized as the one he had mixed in the mill just a few hours ago.

“What’s in here?” the man asked with an undefined undertone in his voice. It wasn't anger that was in it, no, it was something else that the boy wasn’t really able to put his finger on.

“It is a connection of...” he broke off, there would be very little point in throwing technical terms around him “it is a glue, I used it as a trap in my lab”

“A trap?” the king raised a bushy eyebrow.

“People tend to do strange things when they think someone a wizard” Varian shrugged his shoulders.

“Is it dangerous?” the man asked, and the boy took a deep breath before answering.

“No” he shook his head, but this answer was completely pointless because the man in front of him had no reason to believe him. Why should he? He had probably already decided that the content of this flask and the boy who mixed it were a danger to him and his kingdom, so the word of a criminal like him wouldn't change anything, even if it was the truth.

“Arianna said so as well” the king nodded in thoughts “she did argue in your favor, just like the lieutenant and the two guards, Finn and Jonas, I think their names were. They all said you deserved a second chance”

“And what do you think?” Varian asked in a hollow voice, choking the hope deep inside with this emptiness, for the opinion of these people, how pleasant it might be, did not count in this matter and could so easily be thrown off by the man in front of him, wiped aside like an annoying thing that didn't matter.

“I do think everyone, whoever they are, is capable of doing terrible things when the right circumstances are given” the king spoke calmly “what would you have done if this here” he raised his hand with the flask “would not have been found?”

“I” started Varian and broke off again. Every word counted in this answer, every syllable, every letter. On the answer to this question depended his fate, and more than that, the fate of his father.

He took a deep breath before continuing, choosing the truth, even if it was probably the wrong decision that would cost him way too much. He could of course have said that he hadn't intended to hide the glue, that he just wanted to take the chance to mix something up one last time, one last, harmless experiment before he had to return to the dungeons, this time forever. But he didn't want to lie, so he chose the truth “It was in case you broke your word”

“You thought I was lying to you?” the king raised a bushy eyebrow.

“It’s hard for me to believe you” Varian admitted, for it was the truth, the man before him didn't have the best reputation in regard for being truthful.

“That is probably justified” the king sighed deeply “continue”

“Then I would have…” he broke off and ran his tongue nervously over his lips “then I would have used it to disable the guards on the way back”

“And then?” the king asked with a hard voice.

“Then I would have gone to Old Corona and tried to save my father” he finished with a bowed head. A wonderful idea, to tell the truth, he thought bitterly, now he would never be able to save his father, after all, he had just confessed to the king that he could have escaped. Now they'll never let him get around chemicals again.

“Do you think we wouldn't find you there?” the king asked further and Varian shrugged. Maybe they would have found him quickly, maybe he wouldn't have gotten that far in the first place. But he had no other goal and it was pointless for him to flee if he did not help his father “didn't you swear revenge on Corona and my family?” he went on, the harshness of a man in his voice, who would do anything to protect his family.

“That was dumb” the boy replied bitterly and sighed deeply before continuing “I have no grudge against Corona or you, not anymore, all I want now is to save my father”

“Arianna said this to me as well” the king nodded “what would you do if my daughter was here today?”

“I don’t know, I would talk to her, maybe apologize” replied Varian, because it was true, Rapunzel was not to blame, and she didn't deserve to be treated like that by him “it was easier to blame her for everything”

“And now you don’t?” the king asked further.

“She made a promise to me, a very important one, and she didn't keep it” the boy sighed deeply because even if he wasn't quite as angry with her anymore, this fact still hurt incredibly and he didn't know if he could ever trust her again “but no, I’m not angry, not anymore”

“All right, Varian” said the king almost solemnly, using his name for the first time, as if he were about to announce something incredibly important, and Varian's heart skipped a beat hopefully “Given your recent services to the crown, the rescue of the queen and our kingdom, and the repentance you have shown me and my wife, I am ready to give you a second chance”

“Does this mean…?” Varian managed to choke. His heart pounded hopefully against his chest and his head was spinning, but it couldn't be, could it? No, it couldn't be, not after he tried to escape, because even if he hadn't used the glue, its very existence was an attempt. Not after trying to kill people.

“Yes it does, you will be allowed to continue your research to save your father” the king nodded and the boy slumped like a broken doll as this news seeped into his mind “you will not leave the castle, you will be under observation at all times, at least until Quirin is free again, after that, we will see and you will split your time between your research and the work for the kingdom. You are still our prisoner, but yes, you will be able to continue your research” it was almost like a slap in the face that left him paralyzed and weak, it was as if the relief was killing him, burying him under itself until he choked on it.

He will be able to save his father, he will have the opportunity to finally free his father from his amber-colored prison. Even if he had to stay in the castle, not being able to return home, it was more than enough. But no, if he couldn't go back to Old Corona, how should he...

“How am I supposed to research my father's rescue if I am not allowed to leave the castle?” he asked softly “The amber is in Old Corona, I will need access to the substance, theory alone will not be enough” was that the king's plan? To pretend he's letting Varian do research, but not giving him the opportunity to actually do anything against his father's crystal prison? No, that couldn't be, the king wouldn't... “I can't do experiments if I don't have access to the amber. It would never work that way”

“We will move the amber from Old Corona to the castle” the king nodded and Varian let out a relieved breath “it will take a few days, but it won't be long. I never found out how this all happened”, he asked then suddenly.

“It was all my fault” the boy admitted “the black rocks have been getting closer and closer to Old Corona and I've been examining them hoping to find a way to stop them. Dad said I shouldn't, I think he knew more about them than he was admitting to”

“Yes, Quirin originates from the dark kingdom, the source of the rocks” the king nodded “he never told me much about this place, only that it was destroyed by the rocks”

“He never told me” Varian shook his head “After it happened I found a scroll among his things, it was about the black rocks, but I couldn't read much, the text was old, but I could make out enough to find out that the flower is somehow connected to them, so I thought I could break the amber with it, but that didn't work either, so the princess was the only connection left. He told me nothing”

“He wanted to protect you, that’s what parents do” the king nodded understandingly “but I interrupted you, keep talking. What happened next?”

“I...I tested different substances on the stones. They were so close that some of them appeared in my lab” Varian continued, and it was the first time he had actually told this story to anyone and it felt strange telling it to the king of all people. Yes, he had spoken parts of it during his outbreak in the village, but this was the first time he had told it calmly “I'd poured a new mixture over one of the rocks and then Dad came down to the lab. We fought, he wanted me to stop and I didn't understand why. The amber began to grow on the rocks without us noticing. Dad pushed me aside and the amber caught him before he could move away. The princess had promised the day before to help me with the rocks, so I went to the capital, I didn't know who else to turn to”

“Wait, wasn’t that on the day of the blizzard?” the king raised an eyebrow and Varian nodded “are you telling me that you came to the castle from Old Corona in this weather?”

“Uhm, yeah..” Varian nodded “the princess couldn't come with me, so I went back, Dad was already completely covered in the amber and...” he shrugged his shoulders helplessly “…and you can guess the rest”

“I am too old for this” the monarch ran his hand over his face in resignation “okay, I guess I've learned enough. Will you accept my offer? And I warn you, I'm ready to give you a second chance, but there won't be a third”

“Of course, I...I accept, of course, and I swear to you, a third won't be needed” replied the boy resolutely, because yes, he didn’t really swear it to this man in front of him, no, he swore it to himself, he would not make this terrible mistake again, he will never again hurt people because he was hurt and confused himself.

“Good” the king nodded contentedly “do you have questions?” Varian thought for a moment after these words. What questions could he have? What else could be unclear?

“What do you mean by my work for the kingdom?” he asked eventually. He didn't mind working for his stay here, he could stay in the castle, after all, would receive resources from them that he so desperately needed. If they wanted him to play the servant for them, it was a price he would be happy to pay.

“This rain-machine, the one you build in the mill” said the king slowly as if he didn't quite know how to address it “can it really conjure up rain”

“It can’t conjure anything, it's not magic” Varian rolled his eyes and he probably shouldn't do it in front of the king, but it was almost insulting when people thought him a wizard. He didn't snap his fingers and something happened, it was logical what he did, it was based on physical laws and was certainly no magic “the liquid in the machine is heated until it turns into steam, which then is released from the machine and forms small clouds. A catalyst, that is evaporated together with the liquid, cools the steam and lets it fall back down to the earth in form of waterdrops. As you can see it is not magic, it is pure science”

“So it can make rain?” asked the king and the boy could see clearly how little of what he had just said he actually understood.

“Yes, it does” Varian sight deeply “it can cover a small area”

“Arianna had noted that this could be used in agriculture so droughts would not be as dangerous as they are now” the monarch nodded “I want you to continue working on this idea, in return you will receive the full support of the Crown in your research”

“You want to use my machine to make people's lives easier?” the boy asked almost incredulously. It had always been his goal, an unattainable dream that became less and less reachable with every failed experiment, with every machine that exploded into its parts. After the terrible blizzard, this wish faded into the background had become a tiny shadow in his mind, which he continued to suffocate with each of his actions until it was no longer perceptible until he had shattered it with his anger and rage and hatred. Now it crawled out again, warmed his heart almost as much as the thought of being able to save his father.

“Yes, Arianna told me that it used to be your priority” the king nodded.

“Yes, I…I agree, of course, I agree, I…thank you” he stammered out, his tongue rolled strangely over the words, paralyzed by the happiness and joy and the world suddenly looked brighter, friendlier, warmer. For the first time in months, Varian felt that everything was going to be fine.

“Good, you are certainly tired, the captain has been instructed to bring you to your room. You are not allowed to leave it until the lab is done”

“Yes, of course…thank you” he jumped up, a strange energy in his movements that made him stumble more than usual. His legs felt as if they were made of cotton wool as if he were going to collapse at any moment from all the happiness that was singing an unknown song in his heart that was so familiar to his ears.

He was in a trance once again when the captain, still scowling but no longer quite so hostile, led him into his new room. It was small, at least in relation to the rest of the castle, but it had a bed and a tall window that was barred but let sunlight through, and a table and cupboard and shelves. It was almost the size of his lab at home, it was still empty, but he could imagine living here while he looked for a way to save his father.

Ruddiger curiously sniffed every piece of furniture of the new room, crawled into every corner, and finally curled up on the bed. Sometime later the queen came, with a friendly, almost motherly smile on her face, and brought him his notes and books that they had found in Old Corona. They filled the shelves with them, and they talked about trivial things that weren't dark or serious. Then they thought together what they would equip the lab here in the castle with.

Three days later, the amber was brought to the castle and placed in the new lab. It was almost painful to see him, his father trapped in it and this picture sent an icy chill down the boy's spine, frostier than the blizzard. Reluctantly, he stepped up to the crystal, put his hand against it as if he could touch the man inside, pressed his forehead against the smooth, cool surface.

“I will save you” he spoke softly and believed in it.


	14. Chapter 14

It was a strange feeling to come back to Corona. The road under her bare feet even felt different, a familiarity in every single cobblestone that sang of home as she jumped out of the balloon basket. The sun was warmer here, the wind more pleasant, the trees and grass greener, the flowers more colorful and the sky bluer.

Rapunzel could feel that her companions were no different, Eugene laughed happily with Lance as they waved to the people passing them and the people waved back. Every face they passed on the way to the castle was friendly, every smile the people were welcoming their princess back with pushed the sadness Cassandra's betrayal had planted in her heart into the background.

They were still in the Dark Kingdom when the mime found them with the balloon, telling them in his own way about the king and queen being worried about their daughter, who had been out of reach for them for so long that they sent out many search parties to find her and bring her home. It had been wonderfully timed, after all, the group didn't know how to leave the Dark Kingdom and return home without the caravan. Without this search party, they'd still be stuck there.

Now they were back home, their adventure had come to a tragic end, leading to terrible discoveries and the princess wished they had never followed these rocks and yet she knew that they had needed this journey, every single one of them, even though it hasn't given any of them what they expected.

Rapunzel pretended that Cassandra's betrayal didn’t hit her as hard as it actually did. She smiled, she laughed, she didn't say her name, but deep in her heart, she kept wondering how it had come to this. What had she done wrong, to make another friend turning on her, what mistake she made this time, how she could have prevented it.

With Varian it was easier, she knew what she had done, or rather not done, after all. The fight in Old Corona could have been prevented if she had come to him after the blizzard if she had pulled herself together, hadn't holed up like a coward. But with Cassandra, with Cassandra, she didn't know what she would have been able to do to keep her best friend.

So she was silent so as not to burden the others with her problems and worries. She would have loved to throw herself around Eugene’s neck and cry until she ran out of tears, but then he would feel bad for her, and she didn't want that. So she kept smiling, distracted herself with the glowing banners of Corona and the beaming smiles of the people as they went to the castle.

The guards at the gates saluted their group, all of them big smiles on their faces when their princess finally returned home. They were led straight to the throne room and Rapunzel started running when she saw her parents. Tears of joy gathered in her eyes as she ran up the few steps to them and threw herself around her mother's neck. Arianna immediately wrapped her arms around her daughter, pressing her face into her hair.

“I missed you so much” Rapunzel breathed happily as her mother gently stroked her hair. Her father got up from the throne and approached her, and the girl threw herself around his neck next.

“How are you? Are you unharmed?” Frederic held her a little away from him, looked her up and down worriedly as if he expected to see injuries on her that weren’t there.

“Fred” Arianna laughed, warm, motherly happiness in her voice “she just came back”

“I am all right, everything is fine” she lied, because nothing was fine until Cass was with her again.

“How was your journey, sweetheart?” Arianna asked gently, rising from her throne and putting her arm around her daughter's shoulders as if she didn’t want to take her eyes away from her so shortly after her return.

“Oh, it was eventful and exciting, I saw so many new places” Rapunzel laughed “I have so many to tell you”

“Nigel, are there any petitioners waiting for today?” asked the king. His adviser opened the scroll, looked over it thoughtfully, and rolled it up again.

“Only a few, but I am sure they will understand that you want to be with your daughter now, Your Majesty” the man spoke eventually “if you give me permission, I can take care of the rest”

“Thank you, Nigel” Frederic nodded, and the family left the room.

The royal family withdrew to the bright pavilion, where they often ate together. It was a place of calm and peace for all three of them and Rapunzel smiled at the sight. Before she set out on her journey, she had always longed for distant lands and adventures, for the unknown places that lay outside the walls of Corona and her mother and Eugene had told her so much about.

But now her heart was filled to the brim with adventures, now she was glad to be back home with her beloved parents in this nice, familiar pavilion. She told them everything about the many places she had seen, how she became a bird and sailed through the air, how she had lived on an island for several months, how she lost her memory and regained it. She didn't leave anything out and they all laughed at the happy things, her parents' eyebrows knitting from all the dangers she had endured and all the secrets she had uncovered.

“Eugene is a prince?” asked the king in disbelief, perhaps a little dissatisfied with this sudden development.

“Yes,” Rapunzel giggled “he is the prince of the Dark Kingdom, we met his father. When the black rocks destroyed the kingdom, he had to give Eugene to an orphanage so that he could lead a normal life away from all these dangers”

“That worked well” Frederic snorted almost contemptuously.

“Fred” said Arianna reproachfully.

“He became a thief” the man continued “I hardly think his father would have meant that by a normal life” he shook his head and his wife rolled her eyes.

“But it is good” Arianna smiled “this way the last disgruntled voices will finally fall silent”

“There are people who are unhappy with us?” asked Rapunzel a little uncertainly. She loved Eugene more than she could ever love another, so why should people be dissatisfied?

“You are a princess and Eugene is a former thief, of course, many courtiers are outraged by his presence by your side” replied the King, slightly indignant, but nevertheless understanding, as only a loving father could be.

“But I thought you approve” Rapunzel shook her head “I love him and that's the only thing that should matter”

“We know, sweetheart” her mother smiled gently and the princess let out a relieved breath she didn’t realize she was holding “and of course we approve, it is your life and it would be unfair to deny you love just because you are a princess. But some people don't understand”

“That’s politics, Rapunzel” her father nodded “you don't have to worry about it, but we should introduce Eugene into court as a prince anyway, so these braggers will finally stop whispering behind our backs”

“We should hold a ball and introduce him as a prince” Arianna hummed conformingly “Sweetheart, do you know if he wants it?” she turned back to her daughter, and Rapunzel, with the best will in the world, didn't know the answer. Eugene hadn't looked particularly happy when he said goodbye to his father, he had been dismissive and she didn't think he actually felt like a prince. Her mother seemed to read her mind off her face for she smiled gently and continued “we will talk about it later, with Eugene of course”

“That sounds fair” the princess laughed nervously and knew that her boyfriend would not be particularly happy about this development, but if more people would then accept their future relationship, they should at least consider it - because there would be one even if she refused his proposal twice and he once hers, she knew that she wanted to spend the rest of her life by his side.

“But enough of that” the queen nodded “we should send a messenger to the captain, he was leading one of the search parties for you and will surely want to see his daughter again”

“Oh, about that…” Rapunzel stammered nervously and grabbed her hair, running her fingers frantically through the strands, as she always did when she was nervous because she did, now that the conversation was about Cassandra. She hadn't thought about the captain at all when she got home, she should have, because he was Cassandra's father and he had a right to know why his daughter did not return.

How was she supposed to tell them? Explain to them that once again a friend of hers has become a danger to all of them, that she has driven another friend to the edge and pushed them down into the dark depths with no turning back, nothing but anger and hatred and despair lurking at the bottom of it like a terrible monster, ready to knock its sharp teeth into its prey. No, she couldn't do it, she couldn't talk about her.

She was glad that the captain wasn't there, she was ashamed of it, but she couldn't help but feel relief that she didn't have to tell this man what a terrible, dark place his daughter was now at. She took a deep breath and continued without looking them in the eye, she would tell them everything later when she was ready, the princess decided, she could do it another time and she won't lie to them now, she will just withhold some of the information, yes, that's exactly what she will do:

“She has not returned with us, she is not dead, she is fine, we just had...an argument and she has decided to look for her destiny elsewhere”

“That doesn't sound like Cassandra at all” the king shook his head in disbelief “she always seemed to me like a very responsible young lady, otherwise I would never have let you go on this journey”

“She has to find her own place in life” Rapunzel shook her head hastily, shame heavy in her heart for all her lies “I am sure she will return when she finds it”

“Well, that is certainly a shame, but if it is her wish” replied Arianna a little helplessly “how are you dealing with it?”

“I want her to be happy” said Rapunzel and this time it was the truth, for despite their differences, despite the harsh words and the heated hatred that had burned in her best friend's eyes, she wanted it, she wanted Cassandra to find her place, even if it wasn't by her side. She wanted her happy even if she would hate her for the rest of their lives. But should she bring the danger to her gate, she would not hesitate to fight her, however painful it may be.

“That’s very mature of you” said her mother with soft notes of pride in her voice, which made Rapunzel even more ashamed of the lies that burned on her tongue like hot coals.

“And what happened in Corona while we were away?” asked the princess hastily, to change the unpleasant subject.

“Oh, it was mostly quiet” the queen nodded “except for one event” she gave her husband an uncertain glance.

“About nine months ago, an enemy of Corona attacked our kingdom” Frederic continued to tell in her state “his name was Agamon, twenty years ago he brewed the elixir from the flower for your mother saving both of your lives. But he had asked for the rest of the flower for his services, a price I couldn't pay. This year he came to claim this payment. He was an alchemist and he invented a substance that could cover everything with an impenetrable crystal and threatened to spread it all over Corona if we don't give him the flower”

“It's terrible, but you beat him, right?” Rapunzel asked timidly and hopefully at the same time. Of course, they defeated him, otherwise, she would return to a crystal desert, not to her beloved home.

“Yes, but not without help” Arianna nodded nervously as if scared of her daughter's reaction to what she was about to say “there is only one alchemist in Corona” she finally ended and Rapunzel felt as if someone had poured a bucket of cold water over her head.

“Varian” she breathed softly.

“Yes, we had to turn to him for help” her mother nodded “he saved our kingdom”

“What did he ask in return” asked Rapunzel with a heavy lump in her throat because he must have asked something in return, he was no longer the nice, friendly boy she came to so long ago to find out more about her magic hair or the one who helped Cassandra with her assignments during the science fair. She herself had turned him into this monster with her false friendship, she had led him to believe without knowing it.

He hated them all too much to help them. So what did her parents have to promise him? Did they have to let him go so that he could come back with even more dangerous machines and reduce Corona to rubble and ashes? Did she now have to worry not only about Cassandra but also about Varian? Waiting on glowing coals until two of her former friends attacked them? She couldn't take it.

“A chance to save his father” Frederic explained “he's here in the castle, still under surveillance, but yes, we had to let him out of the dungeons” Rapunzel exhaled in relief. So at least he wasn't free, because even if she wished him no harm, he was still a danger as long as he hated all of them.

“I know he had done terrible things” Arianna said “but he regrets it, he was completely alone back then, desperate, anger and hatred are very tempting when you have nothing left to keep you upright”

“He regrets it?” Rapunzel breathed incredulously, timidly, hopefully, and yet unsure whether she could believe this hope. She couldn't be so lucky, she couldn't come back after a long journey and suddenly find that one of her biggest problems, one of her worst mistakes, had vanished on its own. But it did, she thought, her heart pounding wildly because her parents wouldn't lie to her about it. Why should they? They had no reason, no motivation, so it had to be the truth.

“Yes, he does” Arianna nodded “I assisted him in his work on the crystal, he had the opportunity to betray us and join Agamon, but he didn’t, even after Agamon promised him to save his father. He saved my life and all of us with it”

“I have to see him” Rapunzel breathed because she had to, she had to see him, she had to tell him that she was sorry for what she had done to him, to hear from him that he was sorry as well. Maybe she wouldn't be able to get her friend back, maybe he no longer hated them all, but he was certainly still angry with her and she didn't know whether she could forgive him herself. But she didn't want to run away anymore, never again.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Frederic raised an eyebrow skeptically “you have just arrived, you are certainly tired from the long journey, the boy will still be there tomorrow, he is not allowed to leave the castle”

“No, I have to see him now” the princess shook her head.

“All right” her mother nodded and stood up “I will take you to the lab” Rapunzel jumped up after these words, her hands sweaty from the nervousness and her feet quickly with anticipation as if her heart didn't quite know what it should be feeling.

Rapunzel hopped almost as they walked through the corridors of the castle, she would have run off if she knew where to find him. Her mother finally stopped in front of a heavy door. A guard was standing in front of it, bowing wordlessly to both of them. Arianna nodded to her daughter, Rapunzel took a deep breath, stepped to the door, and carefully pressed the door handle.

Her heart fluttered wildly in her chest like a trapped bird and she was no longer sure whether it might have been better to listen to her parents and wait one more night, think about what to say and what to do before she faced the boy who had done terrible things to her and to whom she had done terrible things. But it was too late, she quietly opened the door.

Varian was hunched over a table with his back to them. A young guard stood beside him, looking down at the table, where wild sparks flashed like shooting stars. Then the boy straightened up and turned to the guard.

“It's done” he spoke. The princess could see his face from the side and the smile that danced on his lips as it had once done. He handed the guard a ring with a strange gem on the tip that caught the sunlight from the window and shone in the colors of the rainbow.

“Wow" said the man appreciatively, took the ring and held it up to the light, admiring the bright colors in it “With that Sofia wouldn’t be able to say no. I'll tell her I got it from a wizard”

“I am not a wizard, Finn” the boy said indignant, but there was no anger in his voice, no hatred. The guard laughed and ruffled his hair good-naturedly.

“Thanks, kid” the man smiled down at him and turned around.

“Tell me later what she said” Varian called after him, turning around. It was as if his smile had been wiped away when he saw Rapunzel, who was still standing in the doorway, he froze in motion, his hand still raised, his face suddenly pale as a ghost.

“Oh, Your Majesties” Finn bowed hastily. Rapunzel only now noticed that he had deep scars on his face, dark shadows that were drawn like spots over his skin and it must have been painful when he got them “you have returned, Your Highness” he bowed again, this time alone to Rapunzel and she made an awkward curtsey that was probably not right, too deep or not deep enough “I just wanted to…” he said uncertainly, his gaze flew to the queen who was standing behind Rapunzel.

“Good luck with Sofia” Arianna said softly “and now leave please” Finn threw an uncertain look at Rapunzel, then at Varian, who still hadn't moved since they arrived and finally left. Arianna put a hand briefly on her daughter's shoulder and left as well, pulling the door shut behind her. That seemed to pull the boy out of his stupor, he jumped up and froze again, as if he didn't quite know what to do.

Rapunzel didn’t know how long they stood there, in silence, without moving, the lump in her throat heavy and oppressive. He had grown taller since their last meeting, if they were now standing next to each other, he would probably be almost as tall as her. It was no wonder, a year had passed and he had grown up, still thin and slender, but not quite as lanky anymore, but still quite young.

She could no longer see the anger in his wide-opened eyes, no hate, just fear, fear of her, and something else that she could not really put her finger on, maybe it was even guilt, maybe insecurity, and maybe a tiny spark of him was happy to see her again, but it was something she didn't dare to hope.

“I am sorry” they both spoke at the same time, their voices mingling at the sentence that both of them meant. Then they fell silent for a few heartbeats that seemed like an eternity that dragged on forever to Rapunzel. When it was over, the princess started running.

Varian took an unsteady step away from her, bumped his back against the work table, and pistons clinked dangerously on it. Rapunzel pulled him into a tight hug that he hadn't expected, the first tears stung her eyes as she wrapped her arms around him and some of those endless moments passed again before he hesitantly returned her hug. They stood for a while before Rapunzel gently pushed him away, looked into his face, into his eyes, which, like hers, were filled with tears.

“I'm sorry I let you down back then” she spoke gently, smiled down at him.

“You shouldn’t” he shook his head, so fast that his hair flew wildly in all directions “I…I did terrible things, unforgiving things…I should be the one apologizing, I…” he brock off helplessly.

“I forgive you” Rapunzel smiled “can you forgive me for ignoring you for so long even though you needed me so much?”

“You couldn't have done anything to save Dad” she shook his head again.

“No, but I should have been there for you” the princess nodded.

“I forgive you” he finally replied tonelessly and it was as if that single sentence lifted an incredibly heavy burden from her shoulders that had pushed her down all year long, without her noticing it. They sat on the floor and talked. Rapunzel told him about her journey, about the adventures, about the unbelievable things she had seen and experienced and he clung to each of her words like a child his mother was reading a good night story to. She also told him about Cassandra, about the rocks, about her true identity, about the fact that she didn’t came back with her.

“She hates me” Rapunzel ended tonelessly “she is mad at me and I don't know what I did wrong”

“She is angry” Varian said softly “she is so angry right now that she can no longer think straight”

“Were you so angry as well?” Rapunzel asked timidly because she didn't want to remind him, to hurt him with it, but she wanted so much to understand.

“Yes”, he nodded remorsefully “it's like the brain suddenly stops functioning as if the world suddenly isn't what it should be. But she will calm down, anger is like fire, it will go out at some point, and then she will realize that she made a mistake. You are her best friend and she will remember that in time. She is strong, she won't let this anger rule her for long”

“Thank you” she breathed softly, for it was true, Cassandra was strong, she won't let herself be brought to her knees by such an insecure thing as anger and Rapunzel would wait until she was ready to return to them all, greet her with open arms when she came back. She wasn't going to give her up as she had done to Varian.

She smiled and her gaze flew up to the amber she could make out the shadowy shape of Quirin in. Yes, there was still the promise that she had made to her friend, she thought bitterly, that she now was able to keep and even though her heart contracted in fear when she thought back to the incantation that had driven Cassandra away from her in the first place, she had to do it, she couldn't help but do i.

“I can save your father” she spoke softly.

“What, but…how?” he stammered helplessly “the flower didn’t work, your hair didn’t work…how?”

“The incantation I told you about, it can destroy everything” she rose and held out her hand to him “I can destroy the amber with it” he took her hand without hesitation and she pulled him to his feet and a few moments later they were both standing in front of the amber, Rapunzel's hair wrapped around the crystal, Varian a bucket of water in his gloved hands.

“Once I start this incantation, I won't be able to stop it. And it could seriously harm you and your father” she explained seriously “so I'm trusting you to snap me out of it once your father is free”

“You can trust me, Rapunzel” he nodded resolutely, a gentle smile on his face. She turned to the amber, took a deep breath, and began to sing:

“Weather and decay,

End this destiny,

Break these earthly chains,

And set the spirit free”, it was like diving in as the magic filled her like a blank painting. The darkness swallowed her, as it always did when she spoke the cursed words and it was as if she was floating while her lips kept saying the incantation on their own, while her voice gave power to the sounds. Then it was over again and she came to herself, Varian stood in front of her, his bare hands clasped uncertainly over his chest, and for a moment she gasped for breath because not again, she hadn't hurt someone again like she did with Cassandra back then, but he seemed fine, the skin of his hands unharmed as it should be.

“Are you okay?” he went down on his knees in front of her, worry in his eyes that she had missed so much. She smiled and he flew around her neck, “Thank you”, the boy breathed and jumped up, hurried to the molten amber and his father, who was kneeling in it, alive.

Rapunzel smiled and got up. She should leave them alone, she thought as she left the room without a word, closing the door behind her as quietly as she could so as not to disturb them. They needed this now, after everything that had happened, what they had to go through. She was happy when she went to look for Eugene, to tell him the good news. Her steps were light, joyful, hopeful, she was ready to talk to her lover about Cassandra, more than that, she was ready to get her friend back, to save her from herself, for if she could get Varian back she could get Cassandra back as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It‘s finished. It feels strange to post the final chapter here. I wrote this FF for NaNoWriMo 2019 and didn't start translating it until about a year later and posting it on Ao3. Now it‘s finished. I want to thank all the people who supported me over this time, who subscribed to it, who wrote comments and who left kudos and who bookmarked it. This is the best reward any FF writer can get and I am so grateful to all of you for it. I hope I'll be able to repeat it with another story at some point.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed. Any criticism is as usually very welcome and appreciated.


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